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THE LIFE 



ST. MARY MAGDALENE; 



OR, 



%\t fai| of $*ratattt. 

BY THE 

KEY. THOMAS S. PRESTON, 

AUTHOR OF "THE ARK OF THE COVENANT." 



M Raising up the needy from the earth, that He may place him with 
princes, with the princes of His people." — Psalm cxiL, 7-8. 




NEW YOEK : N^ 
PUBLISHED BY P. O'S! 

104 BLEECKER & 183 GREENE STS. 

1863. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, 

• By P. O'Shba, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 

Southern District of New York. 



LC c ^trol Number 




^P 9 ^ 031653 






INTKODUCTION. 






In the unhappy times in which we live 
there are very few who preserve their 
baptismal innocence. That beautiful 
sanctity which excludes even the knowl- 
edge of sin, and clings to God with the 
?less heart of a child, is indeed rare 
an ng us. The tendency of our age is 
cw exalt the natural above the spiritual, to 
expel the great king from His rightful 
throne, and to make religion the servant 
of our convenience or temporal wants. 
We are willing to be religious a few mo- 
ments in the year, to ease the burden of 
conscience, or to smooth the pathway of 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

affliction or death. To serve God with 
the whole heart, to give Him all we have, 
is a perfection which the greater part of 
Catholics do not aim at. We have our 
work in this life, we have money to earn, 
comforts to secure, and even luxuries to 
obtain. The time which can be spared 
from these necessary employments we are 
disposed to give to our souls, but in a 
long life, that residue of time amounts to 
very little. Holiness is not often sought 
for, and it is not attained. The Sacra- 
ments are received, but with imperfect 
dispositions, and cannot bring forth their 
proper fruits. God works in His own 
garden, but the sterile soil, even under 
His. hand, refuses to be fertile; and He 
labors from the morning to the evening 
with little reward. There are a few who 
correspond to His grace, and strive to give 
Him love for love, but the great majority 



INTRODUCTION. 



prefer the things of sense and the gratifi- 
cation of passion. Perhaps there never 
was a day when there was more danger 
of false hopes, whose basis is self-love 
rather than the promise of Christ. So, 
instead of finding the fragrance of inno- 
cence, we scarcely find the fervor of peni- 
tence. Many live on, either neglecting 
their duties, or perfunctorily discharging 
them, and at last when the Bridegroom 
calls, they find that He knows them not. 
"Not every one that saith unto me Lord, 
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 
heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my 
father who is in heaven." " How narrow 
is the gate, and strait is the way which 
leadeth to life, and few there are who find 
it !" A day of great sin ought to be a 
day of great penitence, and in truth the 
examples of sincere piety which here and 
there cheer the heart of the pilgrim, are 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

the lives of those who from the bitterness 
of transgression have turned with their 
whole souls to the sweetness of the divine 
commandments. Grief for having ever 
offended God, their first beginning and 
last end, has weaned them from the vani- 
ties of this world, and bound them to 
their only consoler, to Him who alone can 
give true joy. God's wonderful mercy 
to the penitent, and the power of our relig- 
ion over the broken in heart, ought to be 
constantly the theme of our conversation. 
We cannot give back the innocence 
which has once been lost, but we can give 
true contrition which heals every wound; 
and show the remedies which in His 
church the great lover of souls has pro- 
vided for the sinner. There are many in 
sin, victims of remorse, and sufferers, for 
whom there is no human consolation. Let 
them know that the way of recovery is 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

open to thein, the tearful yet happy patli 
of penitence which leads to the bosom of 
our offended Father. Let them feel the 
sympathy which once drew tears from the 
eyes of Jesus, and let them be won by 
the gentleness of that love which sought 
the Virgin's womb, and the agonies of the 
cross. So, on the foundation of a true re- 
pentance we may build a solid piety, which 
shall run after the Lord, undo the guilty 
past, and give glory to the infinite riches 
of redemption. 

This little book is written for this end. 
It seeks simply to open to the sinner a 
view of that way which will lead him 
back to holiness, and draw him by the 
attractions of God's love. St. Mary Mag- 
dalene is taken as the model of the peni- 
tent, and her life is the text from which 
we would preach peace to the contrite in 
heart. If we can extend the worship of 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

this great saint in any degree, our labor 
will not be fruitless for souls. This is the 
day and country for the benediction of 
her prayers, and if we will only set before 
our eyes her moving example, perhaps 
God will guide us in her footsteps. 

Having unfolded the object of these 
few pages, it will be necessary to say that 
we have not undertaken to write an exact 
biography of her life. We have, as far 
as we are conscious, in no way contravened 
any fact of history, and in matters doubt- 
ful have contented ourselves with follow- 
ing what seems to be the most approved 
tradition. In accordance with the opinion 
of St. Gregory the Great, adopted by the 
greater part of the Latin writers, and 
even by the Breviary and Missal, we have 
taken St. Mary Magdalene and the sister 
of Lazarus to be one and the same person. 
The matter is not important for a book of 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

devotion, and our object has been so to 
group together the facts which we know 
with those which we may reasonably con- 
jecture, as to make a continuous and 
edifying history. With these explana- 
tions and apologies we have only to com- 
mend our labor to the mercy of God, 
which was so magnified in the Magdalene 
as the type and patron of the repenting 
sinner. 

T. S. P. 

New York, 
Feast of St. Stanislas , 
1860. 



CONTENTS. 



• ♦♦ 



Chapter Fag* 

I Youth 15 

II. Early Geaces 28 

III. Temptation 37 

IV. Sin 47 

V. Eepentance ' 55 

VL Conversion 69 

YII. Affliction 85 

VIIL Answer to Prayer 98 

IX. Personal Loye of our Lord 113 

X. The Penitent's share in the Passion . . 127 

XL The Penitent's Burial 144 

XII. The Day of Resurrection. 160 

XIII. The Hour of Death 171 



LIFE OF 

ST. MART. MAGDALENE. 



CHAPTEE I. 

YOUTH. 

" Who will grant me that I might be according to 
the months past, according to the days in which God 
kept me? When His lamp shone over my head, 
and I walked by His light in darkness % As I was 
in the days of my youth, when God was secretly in 
my tabernacle ?" — Job, xxix. 2-4. 

But little is known of the birth and 
early life of St. Mary Magdalene. Accord- 
ing to the best historians, she was born in 
the castle of Magdalmn in Galilee, near 
the lake of Genesareth, where our Lord 
performed so many of His wonderful 



16 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

works. There are authorities who prefer 
the tradition that she was born in the 
town of Magdala, also in Galilee ; and 
whatever may be the true opinion in this 
respect, it is certain that the name by 
which she is distinguished was derived 
from the place of her birth. Her parents 
were of a respectable calling, and diligent 
observers of the Jewish religion. Their 
children were carefully trained in the pre- 
cepts of the law of Moses, and taught to 
love the virtues w T hich it inculcated. It 
would appear that they occupied a posi- 
tion somewhat eminent among the people 
of Galilee, and hence that the Magdalene 
had unusual advantages of education and 
religious culture. Under such circum- 
stances came into the world the subject of 
our memoir, destined to be a great sinner 
and a great saint. The day of the Gospel 
had not yet dawned. Emmanuel was on 
earth, but not yet manifested. Yet the 
devout were everywhere looking for the 
consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 17 

was shedding abroad those influences 
which prepared the way of the Messiah. 
All that the old law could give of grace 
and truth was oiven to the Magdalene. 

o o 

She was taught to believe in the promises 
made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and 
to bow in faith and prayer before the 
great Jehovah, that unseen God, whose 
name no Jewish lips durst utter, who had 
so wonderfully manifested himself to 
their chosen nation. The lessons of the 
past were duly impressed upon her infant 
mind, and she learned to adore the God 
of her fathers, who, of all the tribes of 
earth, had chosen her ancestors for His 
peculiar people. Every thing in that an- 
cient religion pointed to Christ, and she 
v knew by whose merits her prayers 
were accepted, and by whose strength she 
was to wake in the morning or slumber 
peacefully at night. When she knelt be- 
fore the altar, and, through the priest, 
offered up to heaven the bleeding victim, 
she thought of one on whom all sins were 

2* 



18 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

laid, who was to deliver her downtrodden 
nation and restore Jerusalem. All things 
looked dark on the holy mountain, for the 
city was in subjection to the heathen, and 
the sons of Abraham were his vassals. A 
Roman ruled where once the sceptre of 
David had sway. God was visiting the 
iniquities of His people with a rod, and 
their sins with stripes. But the prophecy 
of their correction contained the promise 
of an unfailing mercy. " My mercy I will 
not take away from him, nor will I suffer 
my truth to fail. Neither will I profane 
my covenant ; and the words that proceed 
from my mouth I will not make void. 
Once I have sworn by my holiness ; I will 
not lie unto David. His seed shall en- 
dure for ever, and his throne as the sun 
before me ; and as the moon perfect for 
ever, and a faithful witness in heaven."* 
The day of darkness was the hour for the 
divine intervention ; and when desolation 

Psalm xxxviii., 34-8. 



LIFE OF ST. MART MAGDALENE. 19 

brooded over the temple and the remains 
of former greatness, God himself became 
incarnate, and was on earth a little child 
at Mary's feet. Graces numberless were 
the fruits of His presence ; His childhood 
was hallowing infancy, and turning the 
hearts of the children to their fathers, 
and the disobedient to the wisdom of the 
just. There can be no doubt that the 
Magdalene shared in the blessings of ner 
day, when the Orient from on high was 
rising, and the beams of the True Light 
began to enlighten every man on the earth. 
Youth is the season of grace, when the 
great Creator, who sees the power of rea- 
son expand under the influence of His 
iight, loves to sow the seeds of virtue in 
guileless hearts. He is life itself, and 
created life is His gift, a faint imitation of 
His own necessary being. He is the ob- 
ject of the intellect and the heart, even 
under the natural order ; but much more 
in the operations of grace which elevate 
the soul to direct communion with the 



20 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

author of its being. Childhood is, indeed, 
a sacred time in which to lay the founda- 
tions of holiness ; a season which the 
incarnate Lord has blessed, and which 
ought to be modelled after His example. 
It has its negative advantages, and" its 
positive blessings. The heart of a child, 
however disposed to evil through the 
corruptions of the fall, has nevertheless 
an ignorance of sin. It is free from sus- 
picion, and docile to the instructions of 
those who gain its confidence. And gene- 
rally its affections are warm, and its sym- 
pathies ready to flow at the sight of want 
or sorrow. It is sensitive to a degree. 
which surprises those who have not 
watched it with eyes of love, patiently 
seeking to educate the opening powers 
which come from God, and are meant for 
His glory. We look upon the fields white 
to the harvest with a sense of satisfaction, 
because with true consistency they repay 
the labor of the husbandman. We take 
a delight which we cannot express in 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 21 

seeing the flowers open their inimitable 
beauties beneath the fertilizing sun or re- 
freshing dew. It is the instinct of our 
higher nature, the love of beauty, which 
leads in its last result to the Creator, the 
only source of all. How much more 
pleasure ought we to feel when w r e see 
the soul awake, and day by day put forth 
the energies, which rightly directed, lead 
to the vision and enjoyment of God? In 
truth, innocence is a blessing which can 
never be over-estimated. The mere 
knowledge of sin changes the face of the 
world, and ushers us into a dreary wilder- 
ness. The mere contact with evil defiles 
us, and leaves a shadow on the sunshine 
with which human life opens to the free 
and generous spirit. When our father, 
Adam, ate of the tree of the knowledge 
of good and evil, he lost his innocence 
and purity; the brightness of Paradise 
was gone, and his whole nature sank at 
the view which presented itself to him. 
Ruined and sick, he turned in disgust from 



22 LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 

the world winch lie had chosen for his 
home, in place of Eden. We can never 
understand the misery which in the first 
moment of his fall overpowered him, and 
seemed to bury him in shades of corrup- 
tion. Children of his fallen race, we have 
not the perfect innocence which he lost ; 
but we have in a measure that privilege 
which consists in freedom from the actual 
knowledge of crime ; and it is a treasure 
which no wealth can buy when once it is 
gone. Youth possesses this treasure, and 
the Church, with jealous care, endeavors 
to preserve it. Those who have had sad 
experience of sin, realize in the bitterness 
of remorse, what they have lost. They 
look back to the peaceful hours when they 
had no dream of real sorrow, when the 
lamp of God shed its light around them, 
and their Maker was secretly in their tab- 
ernacle. 

But childhood has positive blessings 
connected with its comparative innocence. 
The young heart is docile, simple, and sin* 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 23 

cere. Having no reason for confidence in 
itself it is ready to be taught, and is easi- 
ly impressed with the lessons of virtue. 
Hence grace finds not the resistance which 
maturer years, and especially habits of 
vice offer to its appeals. And far quicker 
than we imagine, by eye and ear does the 
child imbibe the knowledge of good and 
evil. We are producing upon the infant 
mind impressions which will last for eter- 
nity by words or actions which we call 
trivial, or which we think children too 
young to understand. Simplicity is also a 
characteristic of youth, for until transgres- 
sion has given some practical acquaintance 
with deceit, we have not the wish to pre- 
varicate. You can read the child's mean- 
ing in his countenance, and if you do not 
give him the example of duplicity, he will 
not suspect any one of double dealing. 
He expresses his wants as he feels them; 
he opens his heart, and has nothing con- 
cealed from those he loves. And with his 
freedom from guile he has an earnestness 



24 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

which is always an evidence of rectitude. 
He works hard in his own little sphere ; 
his trifling joys are to him great fountains 
of gladness, and his petty sorrows are 
a world of grief. Easily pleased, he is 
easily pained, and the smile that lights up 
his face speaks the energy of his whole 
soul. Some children grow old sooner 
than others ; yet these are the character- 
istics of that happy state when actual sin 
has no power to pervert the intellect or 
heart. Should we wish to remain always 
children ? Not in days, for life as it pass- 
es along and bears us home to God, is a 
good; but the doors of the kingdom of 
heaven are open only to such as have the 
virtues of childhood, to those w^ho are sim- 
ple and lowly. Such virtues had St. Mary 
Magdalene when she lisped her infant 
prayers, and knelt in guilelessness before 
the altar of her fathers. 

But we must not forget that we have 
one gift which she had not. The Ke- 
deemer who in after days was to be the 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 25 

physician of her sick and broken heart, 
was on earth. He had come into this 
world of sin before her birth, and was 
leading His hidden life, only that in due 
time He might go out to seek the lost 
and wounded sheep. He became a child 
to hallow infancy, to make it the home of 
His choicest grace, to give it the new 
birth, and conform it to His own holiness. 
Now, the second Adam takes the little 
children into His arms, and the chains of 
the fall are broken by His touch, and 
they are born again of water and the 
Holy Ghost. Regenerate infants are the 
image of the holy child Jesus, the fruits 
of that sinless birth which gave us a 
Saviour, and made Mary our mother. 
Doubly happy then is Christian youth, 
which recalls the power and beauty of 
Bethlehem. The Church never ceases to 
remind us of our regeneration and the 
responsibilities it involves. And if we 
would renew our faith and arouse in our- 
selves and others a true love of holiness, 
3 



26 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

the work must begin here. We niust 
learn the dignity to which grace has 
raised us, and endeavor to estimate aright 
the gift which in our youth the mercy of 
redemption vouchsafed us, a treasure 
which made us members of Christ and 
assimilated us to the angels. From this 
point have been our departures ; and we 
shall never undo the evil we have com- 
mitted, until we become again little chil- 
dren, stooping in humility to rebuild the 
foundations, on which alone sanctity can 
be reared. If there is any lesson which 
this age needs to learn, it is to reverence 
the work of God in the soul, to stand in 
awe of His presence, and to value His in- 
spirations. Thus alone can we acquire a 
fear of sin which will lead us to tremble 
at temptation, and hate from our inmost 
heart every thing opposed to purity or jus- 
tice. It is lamentable to see the young 
grow up with no consciousness of their 
privileges, grieving away the Holy Spirit, 
becoming familiar with vice, and by hand, 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 27 

or eye, or tongue, bringing sin into the 
temple which infinite holiness has conse- 
crated. We who have grown up lament 
when it is too late, that we did not earlier 
know the value of baptismal innocence. 
It would have been a shield against the 
poisoned arrows of the tempter, would 
have cooled the fever of passion, and have 
kept us from those falls which now leave 
their mark upon our spiritual nature. 
Then let us try to save the young, who 
by God's providence are committed to 
our^caxe. Let us shield them from the 
contamination of evil companions, and 
teach them to keep their souls and bodies 
sacred as the temples of Jesus Christ, who 
dwelleth in the height of heaven, and also 
in the pure heart. When we were bap- 
tized, the Church placed upon our heads 
a white garment, which she bade us keep 
spotless until the day of account. If we 
have lost our innocence and are now by 
painful steps regaining it, is there any- 
thing more cheering to us, than the 



28 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

thought of these souls on whom yet spark- 
les the dew of baptism ? These are flow- 
ers of heaven blooming on earth. They 
have not faded yet beneath the sun, nor 
withered under the wintry wind. Let us 
keep them bright for God and train them 
for their true home. 



CHAPTEE II. 

EARLY GRACES. 



" Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth, 
before the time of affliction come and the years draw 
nigh, of which thou shalt say, they please me not : 
before the sun and the light and the moon and the 
stars be darkened, and the clouds return after the 
rain." — Ecclesiastes^ xxii., 1, 2. 

There is a light about childhood which 
casts its beams forward into opening man- 
hood ; and many growing years do not 
altogether dissipate it. It may be that 
the freshness of existence gives its impulse 
to the heart, which opens to the attrac- 



LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 29 

tions of the Creator. Reason expands, 
and God is the life which expands it, and 
the light in which it begins its wonderful 
work. Every new truth it gains is a trea- 
sure far dearer than the tongue can express. 
The eye opens upon the world which tells 
on every side the glories of its Maker, the 
memory can retain the wealth which 
comes day by day, the understanding di- 
gests the lessons of wisdom, and the will 
moves forward the whole man to noble 
action. Affliction has not come, or has 
failed to bring the full measure of be- 
reavement ; the years are full of pleasure ; 
the sun is brilliant, and the moon and 
stars are cheerfully shining at night ; and 
if for a moment the clouds gather, and 
showers burst from them, they are soon 
dissipated and give place to a brighter 
clay. Hopes are kindling every hour, dis- 
appointment is* never imagined. As is 
the earth refreshed in the shadows of 
evening, and glittering in its robe of dew, 

so is life in the vigor of its morning. God 
3* 



30 LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 

makes tlie light of early years. If we 
were not of a fallen race, we should know 
no darkness, for there would be no incli- 
nation to sin, and no cup of sorrow pre- 
pared for us. And fallen as we are, we 
have not lost all the image of God ; and 
when the creating hand makes us out of 
nothing, it is for His praise. It is natural 
for the young to be light-hearted and 
hopeful, for before actual sin has entan- 
gled them in its snares, the page of woe 
is mercifully veiled from their eyes. But 
since man's sad transgression grace has 
been ever at work, and leaves no one to 
himself. It goes before and follows us, 
incites to good, and casts its beams around 
us, although we see not always the source 
of the light which illumines us. Under 
the new law, regeneration takes away the 
curse of the original fault, and gives 
power to conquer every* moral enemy. 
The good Shepherd takes little children 
and makes them His own, and He be- 
comes their father by a spiritual nativity. 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 31 

What wonder, then, that the true Light, 
who is within, should cast His rays without 
and around, should give cheerfulness to 
the heart, and dispel an} 7- shadows which 
gather upon the cradle of innocence ? In 
early years God draws nigh to the soul 
and attracts it to himself, the only good 
and beautiful and true. He takes advan- 
tage of the first impulses of youth, and 
seeks to turn them to the one end for 
which we were created. Correspondence 
with these graces affects the character for 
after life, as indeed it sometimes settles 
the eternal destiny. We are not made 
alike. Variety in order is one of the 
marks which distinguish the perfect works 
of the infinite mind. We have our va- 
rious dispositions, and our different trials ; 
and each one has the grace necessary for 
his state. There is one general end for 
every created intelligence, the glory of 
God and its own salvation. But, besides 
this common end, there is an especial pro- 
bation for every individual, and each one 



32 LIFE OF ST. MART MAGDALENE. 

has his own part to play in the drama of 
life. Characters thus are formed, and at 
a very early day, by obedience, or by re- 
sistance to the graces which are sent down 
upon the morning of youth. The Father 
who made us never los?s His paternal 
love ; even though He punishes us, affec- 
tion tempers the correction, until we have 
finally refused to be His children. Our 
religion gives us a moving view of His" 
dealings with the young, and teaches us 
how to value the early graces which, once 
abused, can never be regained. It was 
never designed that the gifts of baptism 
should be wasted ; and if this happens in 
the majority of cases, it is not the fault 
of the giver, nor of any intrinsic defect 
in His bounty. A light is put within us 
destined to grow brighter and brighter 
unto the perfect day, and the child is ex- 
pected to grow in holiness, becoming 
more and more like the incarnate Lord, 
his exemplar, and developing to their full 
results the powers bestowed by the new 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 33 

birth. God is a father who gives both 
the natural and the" spiritual life; and 
step by step, He leads his children, con- 
forming His wishes to their strength, and 
making no demands which He does not 
enable them to comply with. All that He 
asks is that we follow Him where He 
guides us, to attain the general and espe- 
cial end of our being. Vocations spring 
from this particular providence, and he 
who does not correspond with the design 
of the Creator, wanders from the sure 
way of life ; and though with toil he may 
regain it, is certainly exposed to loss and 
danger of final ruin. If we would avoid 
this risk, we must seek to know the divine 
will in our regard, and cherish all the in- 
spirations of the Holy Spirit. Mistakes 
made in early life are sometimes never 
rectified, or are repaired with the afflic- 
tions and labors of many years. And we 
shall never become holy, until we learn 
how awful it is to hear the voice of our 
maker, and not to obey it ; how fearful to 



34: LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

turn our backs upon the remonstrances of 
infinite love. If we are in mature years, 
a slight examination will be sure to impress 
upon us these truths. Let us recall the 
days of opening manhood, and the many 
aspirations for good which were put in 
our hearts. How happy should we have 
been if we had improved these graces, 
and had not lost that guilelessness, which 
now the tears of contrition cannot restore. 
"We may, perhaps, trace all our miseries to 
one false step, and our first mortal sin is a 
root of bitterness from which have sprung 
the many iniquities of childhood and 
manhood. 

To recount the experience of the Mag- 
dalene is to give a common history, to tell 
what is well known to the majority of us. 
We have seen the happy circumstances of 
her birth and how they disposed her to- 
wards virtue. She had not the gift of 
regeneration, but she had the religion of 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with its legacy 
of honor. The Messiah, so long expected 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MiGDALENE. 35 

by her nation, had already come, and His 
hand which seemed so still at Nazareth 
was forming her young mind. Possessed 
of more than usual gifts of body and in- 
tellect, she grew up increasing in beauty 
and in wisdom. She was the pride of her 
family and the ornament of her home. 
We cannot know all that God did for her 
in that interior which He alone can see, 
but we doubt not that He was guiding 
her in the ways of purity. Peaceful were 
these days of her youth, when each morn- 
ing found her awaking to offer her praise, 
when each evening found her advancing 
in the way of life. Acceptable was her 
prayer before heaven, for it was the in- 
cense of a pure heart. Eeligious observ- 
ances and duties to her family varied the 
simple routine of each day. She went up 
to the temple at the appointed festivals, 
and was faithful to the ordinances of the 
Jewish law. Beneath her modest and 
beautiful exterior, Grod saw much to at- 
tract His love and to draw down His 



36 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

gifts. JSfo doubt she had a yearning for 
purity and greater consecration to her 
Maker, and some foreshadowing of that 
great sanctity she was one day to attain. 
But a fearful gulf lay between her and 
that sun-lit future, and if a shadow of dark- 
less ever crossed her path, it seemed like 
a foreboding dream, which only made her 
prayers more fervent and her love of vir- 
tue stronger. Pier buoyancy of spirit re- 
pelled the fear of evil, and her simple 
trust in God shielded her from anxiety. 
She passed her early years with all their 
graces. Had she always been faithful she 
would have found the Christ with her sis- 
ter, in the ways of love, and not in the 
tears of a broken heart. But great de- 
signs were marked out for her, and hence 
if she fall, we shall see her arise, to lead 
all other contrite souls to Jesus, and to be 
the monument of mercy, proving to all 
time how God makes beauty out of ruin, 
and in desolation rears His own temple. 
"We find her growing up to womanhood, 



LITE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 37 

in the freshness of maidenly grace, living 
for her Creator, and as yet unsullied by 
the sinful world. It was the bright morn- 
ing of a clay whose noon was to be veiled 
in clouds, but whose evening was to be 
glorious. These were the days when " the 
time of affliction had not come, when the 
sun and the light, and the moon and the 
stars were not darkened.'' And in these 
days she remembered her Creator. 



CHAPTEE m 

TEMPTATION. 



" It is a fire that devoureth ever to destruction, and 
rooteth up all things that spring. For what shall I 
do, when God shall rise to judge ? and when He shall 
examine what shall I answer Him V — Job. xxxi., 
12-14. 

Sooxee or later the hour of trial comes 
to every soul, and temptation proves its 
virtue. The devil goeth about as a roar- 
ing lion, seeking whom he may devour. 



38 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

He has snares for the unwary, pits for the 
unwise ; he knows how to cover the eyes 
with a veil, and kindle the fire of passion ; 
and he lies in wait for the moment of 
weakness. He has a good name for every 
thing evil ; pride he calls manliness, re- 
sentment dignity, and sinful lust, love. 
He knows how to poison every thing good, 
and to bend the innocent pleasures of life 
to his purposes. He speaks to us through 
the voices of friends, and looks at us with 
the eyes that we love. He begins very 
carefully his fatal work, that he may not 
shock us by the first little deviation from 
rectitude. Chains of silk are thrown 
around us so lightly that we think we are 
free, and the slender cord grows while we 
are unconscious, until no human force can 
break the chain. He considers well our 
temperament, habits and associations. To 
the end he flatters our self love, and gen- 
tly leads us to the precipice, and in one 
moment, when we least expect it, hurls us 
down. The history of our falls will teach 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 39 

us all this ; and for our future well-beings 
it is good to mark the progress of temp- 
tation. No one becomes a great sinner 
at once, for it is only by degrees that the 
enemy takes the castle of the will. Gene- 
rally speaking, where life is well begun, 
and early associations are good, the first 
wilful mortal sin is committed with diffi- 
culty. Preparation for so fatal a step is 
required, and the soul feels great reluct- 
ance to crime, and deep remorse when the 
evil is done. Conscience sits upon her 
throne with quick eyes and ears, and a 
ready voice, and it is not easy to bear the 
torment of her reproaches. Many a soul 
who has wandered long in the ways of 
transgression, can bear witness to this 
truth. How hard it was to take the first 
fatal step, — how poignant was the sorrow 
that followed ! There was a weight upon 
the heart which nothing could remove ; 
it took away the elasticity of the step, and 
the brightness of the eye, and robed beau- 
tiful nature in gloom. Time went on and 



40 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

the atmosphere of sin became familiar; 
self respect was gone, and passion urged 
for gratification. 

The history of the Magdalene certainly 
conforms to this common experience. A 
shadow came over her bright youth. She 
was growing in favor with God, and like 
a fair plant was blossoming into woman- 
hood. What was that shadow which now 
tuns' over her and threatened to extin- 
guish the sun-light of her early days? 
The tempter had crossed her path. Could 
he crush that fair lily which opened in 
fragrant purity, and take for his own a 
heart which beat only for God ? He would 
try. And well he surveyed the field of 
his labor. It were of no use to approach 
that virgin soul with any gross ideas of 
sin ; disgust would arise, and indignation 
would repel his suggestions. He must 
gradually seduce the heart from God, and 
put some temporal good in the place of 
the eternal. Little by little the chains 
that bound her to heaven must be broken, 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 41 

and earth must send in one by one its at- 
tractions. He must produce weakness be- 
fore he could bring on sin, and before 
weakness .even, he must undermine the 
defences of the innocent. Prayer was her 
delight, and she sought it as naturally as 
the bird that wakes from its rest and chants 
to heaven its morning lay. God had been 
her father, and all her wants were ex- 
pressed to Him with the simplicity of a 
child. Now, when she woke the dark 
form of the tempter hung over her couch, 
and sought to rob her Maker of her first 
thoughts. A languor stole over her, and 
a weariness held her captive, and the world 
came in to fill up the hour. Some bright 
plan of enjoyment, or some proposed duty 
hurried her when she knelt at the feet of 
her God. Day by day passed on, and she 
wondered that her devotions were so list- 
less, or that she could not find her usual 
delight in religion. But she did not see 
how the gay world had begun to make 
her a captive. She mingled in society, 

4* 



42 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

and through the flattery of careless com- 
panions, or by the eyes of the vicious, the 
tempter taught her the first lessons in 
vanity. Never before had she been proud 
of her beauty, but when she learned how 
in grace of form and face she surpassed 
her fellows, the first wound was inflicted 
upon the simplicity of her character. 
Now she began to seek what she never 
before had thought of, and felt a delight 
when she heard the honeyed words of the 
admirer, or knew that she could command 
the attraction of the multitude. She neg- 
lected the cultivation of her soul in the 
care of her body. Excitement began to 
be her life, in place of the quiet in which 
she had been so happy. Had she looked 
up to God and boldly cut off the occasions 
of sin which thickened around her, she 
would have been safe ; but alas ! her 
eyes were closing, and her feet were in- 
sensibly approaching the dark gulf. So 
she had made great departures from the 
service of her Creator, and the farther she 



LIFE OF ST. MABY .MAGDALENE. 43 

wandered, the less she felt her change. 
Now she forgot the care of conscience 
which had been taught her from early 
youth. She rushed home often from the 
gay circle of her evening enjoyment, too 
fatigued to pay her devotions to her Grod. 
She did not kneel to ask what she had 
done by thought, or word, or deed, to of- 

. c O 7 7 

fend the divine goodness ; she scarcely 
prayed at all, and then threw herself into 
her bed, thinking till sleep stole over her of 
the flatteries her eye or ear had caught, 
and then repeating in dreams the excite- 
ment of the dance, or the fascinations of 
the gay throng. Poor child ! how long 
can she retain her hold upon the priceless 
treasure of virtue \ So tar her affections 
had not been engaged* and she seemed to 
have no fear of entanglement, for she re- 
velled in the power of her beauty, and 
knew nothing of love. And, certainly, 
she had never for one moment wilfully 
entertained a sinful purpose. But how 
long can she walk unharmed where arrows 



44 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

fly on every side, where the adversary 
scatters fire-brands and death ? She had 
awakened passion in others, and at last it 
must be kindled in herself. The tempter 
put on a human form, and by fascinations 
which he well understands, gained her 
heart. She was no longer her own mis- 
tress. Unhappy because she was in the 
fever of passion, and her throbbing pulses 
gave her no rest, and yet happy when the 
intoxication closed her eyes to danger, and 
she saw not the precipice to which she 
was hastening. Now all her impulses were 
for the created object of her love, and 
God was forced to withdraw, and her 
good angel retired weeping from her side. 
Wait but a few moments, fellow sinner, to 
see the end. Before the battle be lost, 
there must be a struggle, and even a lull 
in the vigor of the enemy. Mercy waited 
on the Magdalene, and as the shades of 
night deepened, conscience awoke. There 
was many a frightful reverie and many a 
fearful dream. In sleep she seemed to 



LIFE OF ST. MAEY MAGDALENE. 45 

have wandered far from home, and in the 
darkest night to be standing upon the 
brink of a precipice. Above her the 
heavens were threatening, and below her 
rushed the torrent over its rocky bed. 
Once she seemed to fail, and falling she 
awoke, awoke to weep till dawn, when 
once more she knelt where she was wont, 
from childhood, with her face towards 
Jerusalem, and begged of God to save her 
from the deceiver. She offered to her 
Maker her fears, and made her resolutions; 
she vowed to forsake her enemy even if 
it cost her life ; she determined rather to 
die than to Lose her virtue. And her 
vows were sincere, and the Magdalene 
never meant to be the victim of passion. 
A few sure steps now may save her. Will 
she take these steps ? 

Eeader, you may have known some- 
thing of the experience which is here 
briefly related. If so, you know far more 
than words can tell, and we only pray you 
to apply these pages to your own need. 



46 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

If yon are at this moment in the occasion 
of sin, then take the lesson which this 
chapter of human woe onght to impart. 
Fly from the adversary before your limbs 
have lost their strength ; and bid an eter- 
nal farewell to the great enemy of your 
peace. Wait not till you have lost all, 
for the lamb that strays on the dark 
mountains may never get home. Tarry 
not to say the parting word, for that good- 
bye may shake your resolution. If it be 
the right eye, pluck it out ; if it be the 
right hand, cut it off. Run, as Lot from 
burning Sodom, and seek your only shelt- 
er, your Redeemer's arms. Save yourself 
while yet you may, for if you take not 
this step instantly, you perish. You may 
never have known mortal sin, but you will 
soon fall into its abyss. You may yet be 
pure ; soon you will know innocence no 
more. What though you crucify your fool- 
ish affection ! It can never give you peace. 
It will drag you to hell. Give up the 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 47 

creature which leads you astray, and go 
to your Maker, who alone can fill up the 
faculties of your soul. 



CHAPTER IV. 

SIN. 



" He hath hedged in my path round about, and I 
cannot pass, and in my way he hath set darkness. 
He hath stripped me of my glory and hath taken 
the crown from my head. He hath destroyed me 
on every side, and I am lost ; and he hath taken 
away my hope, as from a tree that is plucked up." 
—Job, xix. 3-10. 

The good resolutions of the Magdalene 
were not wholly without effect. They put 
off the evil day, and opened her eyes to 
the true nature of her conflict. God always 

4/ 

hears prayer, and graces came, which 
would have saved her had they been im- 
proved. For a time there was a change 
of life. She retired from evil companions, 
and went back to the long forsaken quiet 



48 LITE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

of her home, that pure retreat where she 
was almost a stranger. All would have 
been well had she persevered. But as 
days hung heavy on her, the world seem- 
ed so attractive that she longed once more 
for its joys. The tempter kept before 
her mind the object of her affection, and 
sought to stimulate the passion, which like 
a whirlwind, was destined to sweep her 
off. She listened a little, then began to 
hesitate, and at last cherished once more 
the fatal affection. One day the deceiver 
crossed her path again, and she had not 
the strength to run from his embrace. 
One concession opened the way for ano- 
ther, and step by step he led her to the 
brink of the precipice. She wandered 
on not knowing where she was going till 
the gulf she once saw in her dreams 
opened before her. Startled a moment 
with horror, she reasoned that all was yet 
safe, and so she loitered where not even 
an angel would be secure. The hour of 
weakness came, and as she hung on the 



LIFE OF ST. MART MAGDALENE. 49 

brink of that precipice, suddenly when 
least she thought it, she fell. The awful 
gulf now tossed her forsaken form upon 
its waters ; the skies were black over her 
head, and the rocks yawned to be her 
sepulchre. Remorse, like the undying 
worm, began its torments, and she was left 
to the misery of a broken heart. The 
deceiver had left her alone, but he would 
soon return. She had a few moments to 
decide her future, and it was the great 
hour for God, or for the devil. The past 
came up before her with its innocence, 
and early graces, and the sight was too 
much for her. She was lost ; and that 
happy past could no more be hers. Good 
angels knowing well the results of her 
decision, stood weeping around, beckon- 
ing to the way of life not yet closed to 
her; but the adversary was there also, 
with legions of wicked spirits, to keep the 
prey he had taken. Now he whispered, 
"all is over, innocence can never be re- 
gained, come with us, for heaven can 



50 LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 

never be your portion, and the pleasures 
of the world are your only consolation." 
And when the poor sinner trembled at 
the prospect as she thought of home and 
the days of youth, and began to turn her 
back upon the tempter, he/ spoke again of 
the delights of sin, and dressed the fatal 
love in its proudest beauty. Could she 
forsake father and mother and bring their 
gray hairs in sorrow to the tomb ? Could 
she inflict a wound never to be healed 
upon her sister and brother? But says 
the enemy, u the work is done ; yon are 
my child ; you cannot confess your crime ; 
you will excite horror or grief; you can find 
no sympathy ; come where the dance is 
lightest, where flowers are plucked before 
they wither, where gloom is banished 
by revel and song. Come, the day is 
short ; take your fill of delight before the 
evening draws nigh ; eat and drink, for 
to-morrow you die. 7 ' So madly rushed 
the Magdalene, and laying at her feet all 
hope of heaven, plunged into the abyss 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 51 

of crime. The lost bark was tossed upon 
the waves, the plaything of the storm to 
be dashed upon the rocks. From one sin 
to another ran on her career of wicked- 
ness. The first deceiver found other vic- 
tims, and the broken heart cared not. 
She seemed transformed into a demon, 
for seven devils took possession of her, and 
the fair form, once instinct with purity, be- 
came the cage of every unclean and hate- 
ful bird. Once she would have shunned 
the touch or too earnest gaze of man ; 
now turned into a tempter, she walks the 
streets that she may entangle the unwary. 
Passion and despair were written on the 
countenance ; and recklessly she sped on 
in her career of crime. The aged father 
and mother were crushed by the blow, 
and fell under its weight, to find their rest 
in the tomb. The light of life departed 
from home, and neither the sister's gentle- 
ness, nor the brother's tears, could move 
her. This is the lily crushed on its stem, 
the ruin of what once was so modest and 



52 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

holy, the fair daughter of Magdalurn 
changed into a harlot. 

The course of sin thus traced is with- 
out doubt the history of those who fall 
into grievous sin. No one Mis at once 
into the abyss ; and there x is no child of 
man without great graces in childhood. 
Insensibly almost is the soul led on, and 
before the sacrifice of virtue be accom- 
plished, there are great struggles with 
conscience. Good resolutions are made, 
to be broken in the hour of temptation, 
and the victim in the hands of the deceiv- 
er moves backwards and forwards, an,d at 
last is surprised into crime. The greatest 
sympathy should be shown to all sinners, 
for heavy is their burden ; but above all, 
should pity be extended to transgressors 
against purity. The first offence is hard 
enough to bear, without the reproaches 
of friends ; and the harshness of good ad- 
vice is very apt to plunge the sufferer in 
deeper wickedness. Often the poor crea- 
tures who wander about our streets are 



LIFE OF ST. 3IAKY MAGDALENE. 53 

more sinned against than sinning. The 

first step was not wholly voluntary, or 
was the result of unhappy circumstances 
where few could keep their footing. Great 
is the charity and noble the devotion 
which seeks to reclaim these poor child- 
ren of shame. It is a love which comes 
from the heart of Jesus, a mercy which He 
inspires ; and if angels love any office, it is 
this of going in their master's footsteps to 
seek the lost sheep. May God give great 
success, as . surely He will give a high re- 
ward to the holy community, which in 
patience and self-denial, labors for this 
end. 

And in whatever sin we may now be 
entangled, there is a lesson for all of us. 
When once we have taken a false step, 
let us go and confess it where the father 
of the prodigal waits to receive us. De- 
lay will only increase our misery, and 
fasten upon us the chains of sin. Despair 
is the worst and generally the fatal temp- 
tation of the devil; his master stroke, 



54: LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALEKE. 

when the soul crushed with shame, fears 
to go forward, and dares not return. Let 
us beware of this artifice. God is ever 
ready to receive the penitent. Did He 
not die on the cross for the very sins 
which torment us? Has He not said, "If 
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made 
as white as snow ; and if they be red as 
crimson, they shall be white as wool?" 
No one ever sought His compassion in 
vain. When men spurn us and look at 
us with loathing, He yearns to take us 
to His bosom. He. judges every one just- 
ly, knows our frame, remembers we are 
but dust, and pities, as none but Him can 
pity, the misery of the unfortunate. There 
is no evil like sin, no pain like the torture 
of a reproaching conscience. Well is it 
for us that we have not to answer to men, 
that we must fall into the hands of the 
living God. 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 55 



CHAPTER V. 

REPENTANCE. 

" that my sin, whereby I have deserved wrath, 
and the calamity that I suffer, were weighed in a 
balance. As the sand of the sea this would appear 
heavier ; therefore my words are full of sorrow : 
For the arrows of the Lord are in me. the rage 
whereof drink eth up my spirit, and the terrors of 
the Lord war against me. Who will grant me that 
my request may come ; and that God may give 
me what I look for % that He that hath begun may 
destroy me, that He may let loose His hand and cut 
me off'? And that this may be my comfort that 
afflicting me with sorrow, He spare not '?" — Job, vi., 
2-10. 

Is there any sinner who goes on in a 
career of vice without moments of sor- 
row, or even detestation of his crime? 
Can we suppose that the Magdalene was 
free from these movements of the Holy 
Spirit, or that as she rushed madly on, 



56 LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 

she enjoyed the pleasures of transgres- 
sion ? She quaffed indeed the cup, but 
its drugs were bitterness ; and her after 
life proves to us how many and severe 
were the compunctions of her spirit. We 
will trace the steps of her repentance, and 
they are substantially those of every con- 
trite soul. May God give the sinner 
grace to follow in her footsteps. Wild 
enough was her course of vice. Her 
voice was loudest in the revel, and her 
feet were quickest in the dance. The nights 
were passed in excess, and the days in 
dreary indolence. The wages of her in- 
iquity were spent in garnishing the casket 
whose virtue had flown, in refreshing the 
charms which faded in the ravages of 
passion. Yet here was no happiness. 
Remorse tormented incessantly ; and 
whenever there was a lull in the excite- 
ment, the still small voice spoke, and its 
accents stirred the listener almost to in- 
sanity. She grasped after sin, and wel- 
comed darkness, but nothing could con- 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALEXE. 57 

ceal her bitterness. The mirror that 
showed the grim remnants of her beauty 
told not half so true a tale as the con- 
science within. She u had empty months 
and wearisome nights. When she lay 
down to sleep, she said, when shall I 
arise ? and in the morning I shall be filled 
with sorrows, even till darkness. Her 
flesh was clothed with filth of dust and 
rottenness ; her skin was withered and 
drawn together." Frightful dreams op- 
pressed her fits of slumber ; and weary 
of life, she longed for death, but durst 
not throw herself into the abyss of fire. 
This remorse was God's visitation, and the 
beginning of repentance. If, like Judas, 
she go and hang herself, all is over ; if 
she listen to grace there is a remedy at 
hand. And lo ! the kind physician came 
and knocked at her door. Jesus of Xaza- 
reth was preaching in Galilee, along the 
way of the sea, where she had spent her 
innocent youth. She had heard her com- 
panions speak of His name, and jeer at 



58 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

His humble garb. Yet they confessed 
that He healed the sick, and raised the 
dead, and cast out devils. Who could 
this be ? The misery of the Magdalene 
from its depths called unto the compas- 
sion of God. Could He Ipe the Messiah 
of whom in childhood she heard so much, 
the long expected Saviour in whose faith 
her poor father and mother had died? 
What if He were the Christ ; could He 
bring mercy to her ? Would He speak to 
publicans and sinners, or allow a harlot to 
approach Him ? One day she wandered 
through the village of Capernaum. The 
Pharisee passed her by with looks of 
scorn, and priest and levite held up their 
robes and pointed her out to the multi- 
tude. Running from their gaze she min- 
gled in a crowd who were listening to the 
voice of some prophet. Who should this I 
prophet be but Jesus the Nazarene ? She 
drew near enough to hear His words. He 
was exhorting to virtue and rebuking 
vice, and yet there was a gentleness in 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 59 

His tone which, pierced her very heart. 
He seemed to be speaking to her, and 
while she trembled with emotion, the big 
drops ran out of her eyes and gushed 
upon the ground. Such a voice she had 
never heard. It woke up her soul, it 
captivated her senses, and sent the arrow 
of conviction into her bosom. Instinct- 
ively she pressed nearer, and at last looked 
upon His face. First she durst not lift up 
her eves ; there was an awe which over- 
whelmed her, and yet a sweetness that 
drew her. He looked upon that throng 
as a father looks upon his erring children, 
but O, with eyes that spoke the majesty 
and the tenderness of God. The Magdalene 
ventured to look up, and those eyes were 
fixed upon her. One glance was enough. 
This was the Messiah, the Son of God. 
He had not spoken to her, and yet had 
read her heart and knew all its bitter- 
ness. She sank weeping in the crowd, 
and as the multitude pressed on, He with- 
drew to the mountain to pray, and she 



60 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

went to her home to pass the night in 
tears. Now a change had come over her, 
and the floods of grief that ran down her 
cheeks were not the tears of remorse 
alone ; they were the tears of sorrow foi 
her crimes. She wept over her own deso 
lation. What had she been in the days 
of yonth ? She thought of those bright, 
early days, when free from guile, her 
heart, like the incense, went up in every 
pulsation to her Maker ; when her voice, 
light as the lark, gave its tribute of praise 
with the dawn. She saw the sacred circle 
of home which she had made desolate, 
the gentle firmness of her father, and the 
fondness of her mother, the confidence of 
sister and brother. The voices which 
trained her young mind to piety were 
now silent in the grave, and she had 
brought dishonor on their memory. The 
sister's loneliness could not be cheered, 
and the brother was broken-hearted. 
Could this miserable wreck be she, who 
once knew no sinful impulse, whose virgin 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 61 

modesty blushed like the rose, at its own 
praise ? Crushing, indeed, was this view 
of her present and her former self; but 
it was not the half. She had sinned 
enough against herself, against man ; but 
what had she not done against God ! He 
who had made her and preserved her, 
had crowned her with His favors. In 
childhood she loved Him as the author of 
all her good. Wildly she had run from 
His restraints, and every new mercy was 
only a new occasion of ingratitude. Could 
He still look upon her with favor ? Yes ; 
else why was she not already in hell, and 
why had she this anguish for having of- 
fended Him ? Then looking from His 
goodness to her, she cast her eyes to that 
heaven where He manifests His glory, 
and saw how He is goodness itself, the 
life of all that lives, the beauty of all that 
is fair, the sanctity of all that is holy. 
He once raised his hand and woke the 
universe into being, and pencilled on the 
page of nature the revelations of His own 



62 LIFE OF ST. MABY MAGDALENE. 

loveliness. Yet what was the work of 
creation to the more wonderful work of 
grace in the soul, and in her own heart ? 
Such thoughts, day by day, wrought the 
conversion of the sinner. At first she had 
seen hell before her, and ha,d fled tremb- 
ling from its fires. Now she only wept 
at her ingratitude towards the goodness 
of her God. Her knees grew hard with 
kneeling, and her eyes became almost 
blind with weeping, and her flesh was 
dried up with fasting, for she hungered 
now for pardon, and had no relish for the 
bread that perisheth. And sometimes, in 
her dreams, came the bright vision of 
Abraham's bosom where the patriarchs 
were resting in peace, and the form of 
her parents seemed to welcome her, lost, 
but found again, to their felicity. Yet 
Jesus was the minister of her repentance, 
and the consoler of her darkness. He 
had opened in her heart the spring of con- 
trition. Before she saw Him the tears 
could not come ; now they gushed with- 



LIFE OF ST. MAEY MAGDALENE. 63 

out ceasing, day and night. He had look- 
ed kindly at her, and she was sure He 
would not reject her. So, day after day, 
she followed Him and listened to His 
teaching, and His words drew her more 
and more to himself. What could she 
do better than follow Him, for she had 
long since been without home ? She 
turned from all sinful companions and 
every occasion of vice, and resolved to 
become a disciple of the Nazarene. If 
He would receive her and teach her the 
way of virtue she could surely find par- 
don. She durst not yet make herself 
known to our Lord, but wherever He 
went her heart led her. One day she 
stood with the throng of His disciples 
near the gates of the city of Nairn. Un- 
seen she watched the good shepherd ; 
when, behold, a funeral procession passed 
along. Upon the bier lay the body of a 
young man, and the mournful mother 
supported by sympathising friends, walk- 
ed behind. Every one was moved with 



64 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

compassion, for this poor woman had lost 
all she had, the support and solace of her 
declining clays. The Magdalene looked 
on and wept. She felt for the bereaved, 
but the sight awoke a new source of grief 
in her heart. Father and mother, sister 
and brother had mourned for her, who 
had been worse than dead. Many a time 
had they wished that they could have laid 
her in the tomb, ere the robe of innocence 
had been torn, ere the treasure of vir- 
tue had been lost. What was death to 
the corruption in which she had been ly- 
ing ? Jesus is moved. He speaks to the 
broken-hearted mother, and bids her weep 
no more. He touches the bier, and the 
bearers stand still. In a voice tremulous 
with emotion and still full of pow r er, He 
bids the dead to rise, and restores the lost 
child to his widowed parent. The poor 
sinner was a close observer of that mira- 
cle. She saw the young man arise from 
his bier and kneeling at the feet of his 
God, again and again embrace his moth- 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 65 

er. Fear came upon all who saw it, but 
love was poured into the Magdalene's 
heart. She believed in the Messiah. She 
needed no other proof of His divinity, 
and as she saw this exhibition of mercy, 
she felt sure that she would not be rejected. 
He. would speak to her dead soul and 
raise her to life, and if once she could 
touch Him, or He would deign to touch 
her, grace which she had never known 
would flow into her. Her ghastly wounds 
should be healed, her weakness strength- 
ened and cleanness of conscience should 
be restored to her. His hand alone could 
take her out of the grave where she had 
been corrupting so long and give her back 
the health she had not known since her 
first mortal sin. So, as the crowd passed 
away and Jesus retired from her sight, she 
went home to take her last resolve. The 
time had come for her to arise, despising 
all human motives, and go to her Father 
and say unto him : Father, I have sinned 
against heaven and in thy sight. Jesus 



66 LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 

was her Father ; she asked for no proof of 
His paternal regard which she had seen 
in His face and heard in His voice. To 
Him she would freely open all her misery 
and unreservedly throw herself into His 
hands. 

Here, then, we see the stages of that 
repentance through which every sinner 
must pass, before he can obtain the for- 
giveness of his offences. Different indi- 
viduals have, indeed, different experience 
and peculiar graces, yet the steps of re- 
turn to God are substantially the same in 
all. First, there comes the agonizing re- 
morse, the sense of desolation which fol- 
lows transgression. The prodigal sees him- 
self an outcast from all that is good," hun- 
gry and thirsty, or feeding with swine as 
their fit companion. He compares this 
wretchedness with the happiness for which 
his Creator designed him, and the peace 
which filled him before he knew sin. He 
accuses himself for all his misery, and with- 
out human consolation, trembles at the 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 67 

gloomy future, which reveals only the cer- 
tainty of judgment and retribution. Fear 
mingles with remorse and a truce is made 
with the adversary. The habits and oc- 
casions of sin axe renounced, as the long 
forsaken duties of prayer and examina- 
tion of conscience are renewed. Then, by 
degrees, love comes in to accomplish the 
work, and the goodness of God in Him- 
self and towards the ungrateful creature, 
moves the very depths of feeling; and 
tears flow for the outrage done to infinite 
love. Calvary, with its harrowing scenes, 
is continually before him, as he flies there 
for succor and seeks to hide himself in 
the wounds of Jesus crucified. The bur- 
den of sin begins to be removed and he 
breathes more freely ; vet, O ! how he 
weeps when each agony exposes his in- 
gratitude. Where the nails hold fast the 
swollen hands and feet, he sees the work 
of his own life, and on every point of the 
thorns beholds the sharpness of his trans- 
gressions. Where love bleeds and dies, 



68 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

there the sinner finds abundant grief and 
certain hope. There he learns to pray, 
and calls upon all to pray for his recovery — 
the mother whose heart breaks in the sor- 
rows of her son, the saints who have been 
washed in this blood and the angels who 
will rejoice over his conversion. Thus he 
has found the way to life, and he has but 
to bid an eternal farewell to the occasions 
of sin, and go at once to Christ and the 
mercy He has provided for the sinner. 
May God, against whom we have often 
rebelled, lead us all in this path of repent- 
ance. It is our only hope, for nothing can 
take the place of true contrition. Where 
it is wanting, there may be temporary 
grief or natural fear ; there never can be 
amendment or perseverance in virtue. We 
see many short-lived conversions, where 
good resolutions are only made to be bro- 
ken ; and sometimes, even on the bed of 
death, the terrors of judgment are mista- 
ken for true sorrow of heart. In our day 
when sin so much abounds, our great need 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 69 

is that of contrition. It is this which 
changes the whole man, and leads the 
prodigal forward in the ways of holiness. 
This would arouse in the Church the an- 
cient spirit of piety, would guide to he- 
roic sacrifice, to the counsels of perfection, 
to union with God. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CONVERSION. 



11 If thou wilt put away from thee the iniquity that 
is in thy hand, and let not injustice remain in thy 
tabernacle : then may est thou lift up thy face with- 
out spot, and thou shalt be steadfast and shalt not 
fear. Thou also shalt forget misery, and remember 
it only as waters that are passed away. And bright- 
ness like that of the noon-day shall arise to thee at 
evening : and when thou shalt think thyself consum- 
ed, thou shalt arise as the day-star.": — Job, xi., 14—17. 

" While the king was at his repose, my spikenard 
sent forth the odor thereof." — -Canticles, i., 11. 

All the night long the Magdalene me- 
ditated upon the great step she had re- 



70 LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 

solved to take. She believed and hoped, 
and yet she feared. There were many 
temptations and many difficulties in her 
path, but in spite of them all, she was de- 
termined to go to Jesus, and open all her 
wretchedness. How should she find Him ? 
To get near Him among a crowd were al- 
most impossible, for the whole city knew 
her, and every one treated her with scorn. 
In the morning she arose early, and went 
out to inquire where our Lord was. The 
grace that led her prepared the way, and 
she learned, by almost an accident, that 
He was to dine that day with Simon the 
Pharisee. There could be no better chance 
for her humiliation, and at once she re- 
solved to seek the great physician, before 
the disdainful Jews, and in the presence 
of all the company. They might cast her 
out of doors, and yet she felt that no time 
was to be lost. They might revile her, 
and fr r this she would not care, so that 
she could accomplish her purpose. She 
began, therefore, to make the preparations 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 71 

for this greatest act of her life. Sorrow 
was manifest enough ; she must find some 
token of love. She found an alabaster 
box of the most precious ointment, and 
at the appointed hour goes forth on her 
mission. A throng in one of the princi- 
pal streets announced to her that the 
great prophet was coming, and at once 
her heart began to overflow with emotion. 
She hid herself near by, until in the 
crowd around the house of Simon, she 
passed in unobserved, and from the en- 
trance saw our Lord as He sat down to 
meat. Unnoticed, she *tood a moment to 
survey the scene, looking with the most 
anxious face at His features, and trembling 
from head to foot. Ah ! there was only 
one vrho pitied her anguish, and gave her 
timely aid. Suddenly when all courage 
began to give way, He seemed to turn 
His eyes towards her, and a hand she felt, 
but could not see, urged her on. She ap- 
proached the door, and gently glided into 
the room ; and the pulsations of her heart 



72 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

shook her whole frame. Slowly she ad- 
vanced to the seat where Jesus was re- 
clining, and stood a moment. She had 
much to say, but could find no words ; 
and as the Pharisees turned around to chide 
her, she fell weeping at His side. No one 
spoke to her, but as her sobs increased in 
vehemence, the tears fell like rain upon 
the sacred feet which she durst not yet 
touch. She had often wept, but never 
with such consolation. Every drop that 
gushed from her eyes seemed to ease her 
heart, and to bear on its tide the pollu- 
tions of past years. Some wondrous power 
was cleansing her, and so the torrent pour- 
ed on till the flesh of Jesus w r as bathed 
with the sinner's tears. Little by little 
she drew nearer as she found courage, and 
letting fall the hair, which had been her 
pride, she wiped the sacred flesh with it, 
and opening her box of spikenard, anoint- 
ed the feet which had oft been weary in 
seeking her, which were soon for her sake 
to be pierced with the nails. The grate- 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 73 

fill perfume filled the room, but was noth- 
ing 1 in God's sight to the fragrance of a 
repenting soul. Not one word had been 
spoken, and yet the Magdalene knew that 
her work was done, and she felt that she 
was once more reconciled to her heavenly- 
Father. Then tears of gratitude began 
to flow, and kneeling still, she kissed a 
thousand times the sacred feet, and it 
seemed that nothing could tear her from 
that embrace. Every time she touched 
the flesh of her God new life and grace 
were poured into her soul, and so her 
vows were heard and blessed. There, 
where she had found forgiveness, she gave 
herself unreservedly to the love that had 
sought her. She knew how for many long 
years He had sent to the dark mountains 
to recover the wandering sheep, and at 
last had come himself, though His garb 
was red with blood, though His feet were 
worn with the rocks, His hands pierced 
with the briers, and His locks wet with 
the drops of the night. He had searched 



74 LIFE OF ST. MAEY MAGDALENE. 

for her before she knew of Him, and now 
what remained of life was His. Her 
whole heart went up to Him, and she 
loved as she had never known how to 
love, for she loved her God. Thus the 
bridegroom was taking to His embrace 
the poor Magdalene, was purifying her 
from every stain, and preparing her to 
shine as a gem in His crown of glory. So 
far He had said nothing, but silent, had 
held spiritual converse with this poor 
child His grace had recovered. He had 
bound up her wounds while she was 
anointing Him. He had comforted her 
broken heart, and the kisses which He 
suffered to fall upon His feet w^ere the 
sign of mutual love and an eternal union. 
Happy was the forgiven sinner, beyond 
all of happiness she had tasted, or could 
understand. She gave way to the delights 
of pardon. She had found Him whom 
her soul longed for. She would hold Him 
fast and never let Him go. 

During this scene so affecting to angels 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 75 

and the God of angels, the Pharisees had 
kept silence, out of respect for their guest. 
Scornful looks were their only expressions 
of the disgust they felt for any one who 
would be a friend of publicans and sin- 
ners. Jesus read their thoughts, and knew 
how thev were reasoning, that "if He were 
a prophet He would surely have known 
who and what kind of woman this was 
that touched Him." It was time for Him 
to speak, to gently rebuke Simon, and 
comfort the Magdalene. All the majesty 
of His divine person was joined with the 
tenderness of His human heart, when He 
answered the Pharisees' thoughts and said 
" Simon, I have something to say to thee. 
A certain creditor had two debtors ; the 
one owed five hundred pence, and the 
other fifty. And, whereas, they had 
not wherewith to pay, he forgave them 
both. Which, therefore, of the two lov- 
eth him most." Simon replied, " I suppose 
that he to whom he forgave most." And 
He said to him, " thou hast judged right- 



76 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

ly." Could any more touching reply be 
conceived to the uncharitable thoughts of 
proud man? It is only the holy who 
know how to pity and forgive, for they 
alone understand the evil of sin, and par- 
take of the spirit of their . Master. The 
man whose crimes are hid from the world, 
boasts of his uprightness, and has no 
compassion for the unfortunate. We can 
well imagine how anxiously the Magda- 
lene hung upon her physician's words, how 
heartily she thanked Him for the consol- 
ation. He had seen the depths of her 
bosom. She would love Him more than 
all others — she would be jealous indeed 
of any one who should surpass her in this 
devotion. Then for the first time He turn- 
ed His eyes upon her and looked at her 
with that glance of love which will make 
the happiness of heaven. The poor sin- 
ner could ask no more. He said to Simon, 
a dost thou see this woman ? I entered 
into thy house; thou gavest me no water 
for my feet : but she hath washed my feet 



LIFE OF ST. 3IAEY MAGDALENE. 77 

with tears, and wiped them with her hair. 
Thou gavest rne no kiss : but she, since 
she came in, hath not ceased to kiss my 
feet. My head with oil thou didst not 
anoint : hut she with ointment hath an- 
ointed my feet, Wherefore I say to 
thee, many sins are forgiven her, because 
she hath loved much. And He said to 
her: thv sins are forgiven thee. Thv faith 
hath made thee safe ; go in peace. 1 "" Xo 
words can express the joy with which the 
sinner heard this assurance of a full re- 
conciliation, and saw how the Lord accept- 
ed her vow of love. A new life opened 
to her now, as rising from the feet of 
Jesus she went out with the seal of par- 
don on her lips, and lightness in her heart. 
Her former elasticity came back, and she 
found herself running for joy, for hence- 
forth she had something to live for. Her 
affections, which had wandered among 
creatures, had found their supreme rest. 

* St. Luke, vil, 36-50. 



78 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

44 The waters of misery were passed away. 
Brightness like that of the noonday arose 
to her, and from the deep of her affliction 
she arose as the day-star." 

It is not in the power of man to do jus- 
tice to the scene which is here portrayed, 
the scene where forgiving mercy and for- 
given love meet together. And yet its 
chief characteristics are repeated in the 
case of every soul which returns from in- 
iquity to God. Conversion is a simple 
thing. It is turning with the whole heart 
from the ways of sin to a life of holiness. 
And yet, simple as it is, it contains much. 
It comprehends the detestation and re- 
nunciation of all vice, and every thing 
which leads to it ; a change of purpose 
and even of desires. If we have ever re- 
pented, we have passed through this step, 
and if we still sin we must take it again. 
Grace will accomplish all, but not with- 
out our cooperation, and the firm resolve 
to serve God and forsake sin is of abso- 
lute necessity to salvation. We have not 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 79 

all sinned as the Magdalene did, but our 
transgressions are perhaps more heinons. 
Some of us may have fallen even deeper, 
but at least there is this difference be- 
tween her and ourselves. She had never 
been washed in the waters of baptism, 
and had never trampled upon regenerat- 
ing grace. We have defiled the white 
robe which the Son of God put on us, 
and have grieved out of our bosoms the 
Holy Spirit. We never can, in this life 
at least, abhor as we ought the vileness of 
our ingratitude. It is for us to ask of our 
Lord the true penitence of the Magdalene. 
We may not obtain the sensible grief 
which overwhelmed her. Her sorrow may 
be beyond us, and God may not see fit to 
give it to us. He will, however, give us 
all that is necessary, and all that w^e shall 
improve. Let us imitate her example, and 
go to Jesus with the offering of our love. 
He will not repulse us ; and when once 
we get at His feet, the tears will come 
unbidden, and the flames of affection shall 



80 LIFE OF ST. MAEY MAGDALENE. 

be kindled. Every sinner has felt the 
burden of his crimes, be they secret, or 
known to the world. It is idle to try to hide 
a sorrow which will consume us in despair, 
if we do not give it vent. The world we 
know, is censorious and has no ear for the 
voices that come up from a broken heart. 
It would push farther down the falling, 
and heap scorn upon the unfortunate. 
But who cares for the world or its opin- 
ions ? Calvary was the measure of its 
hatred of God, the spectacle of its pity. 
If Jesus were on earthy how would we 
run to Him and pour into His ears our 
tale of woe, and lay upon His shoulders 
the weight we cannot carry. Fellow sin- 
ner, He is on earth, not indeed visibly as 
in the days of His flesh, but really, and 
in the persons of those whom He has 
sent. Has He not said, " blessed are they 
that have not seen and have believed ?" 
He abides in His Church, the victim for 
our sins, the bread of life ; and He that 
eateth His flesh, shall hunger no more. 



LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 81 

In the tribunal of mercy He waits for the 
contrite, and to Him you confess your 
sins, and His words proclaim your pardon. 
u He that heareth you, heareth me." 
" Whose sins you shall forgive, they are 
forgiven." Do we need any further en- 
couragement ? Let us go then to the feet 
of our Redeemer, and confess our crimes. 
If we have no costly spikenard to offer 
Him, we can at least give the fragrance of 
a burning love, and the remnant of our 
life. We can imitate the Magdalene in 
her tender devotion to Him, who bore the 
burden of our iniquities. She had never 
seen the mystery of her redemption, and 
did not know the price of her pardon. 
She was afterwards to weep on Calvary 
and watch at the sepulchre. We have 
seen the whole passion, and worse than all, 
have done despite to the sacred blood. 
Where are our hearts if they awake not 
to gratitude, if they have no tribute of 
love to the God who redeemed us, at the 
cost of His own death? The rocks are 



82 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

more feeling than we, for their adaman- 
tine heart was broken at the expiring cry 
of Jesus. Let us with Mary, choose the 
good part, banish evil from our eyes and 
hands, and continue ever humbly at the 
feet where we found mercy. Let us follow 
on in the path of penitence, until we find 
perfect union with Him who has saved us. 
Surely, our contrition is worth little if it 
leads not to this ; if being once delivered 
from the bondage of corruption, we hanker 
after the food of swine, or try to com- 
promise between the world and heaven. 
No! sincere piety, great holiness is the 
aim of the penitent. He can rest satisfied 
with nothing less than conformity with 
the object of his love. If he stop short 
of this aim, he will fail of the goal of 
salvation. Ungrateful, he will grow care- 
less, and from carelessness will go back to 
his vices. O ! for the spirit of early times, 
the great courage and zeal of happier 
days. May God, whose pardoning mercy 
was never more widely shed abroad, pour 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 83 

upon His church, the devotion that suits 
the returning sinner, and make us, whom 
He has forgiven much, love much. 

We cannot better end this chapter than 
by giving the beautiful Hymn of the 
Breviary, which has indeed been the text 
of our discourse. 

The Father of eternal light 
Beholds the contrite Magdalene, 
His arms are opened to invite 
The trembling sinner to His side. 

Then swift with love she seeks her Lord, 
Falls weeping at His sacred feet, 
Where Mary's child, the incarnate Word, 
Accepts the offering of her tears. 

The costly spikenard's rich perfume 
Is not so fragrant as her love ; 
The rose's blush, the lily's bloom 
Is not so sweet as Mary's prayer. 

For her the cross has now no fear, 
She hangs upon the crimson tree, 
And morning dim and evening drear 
Keeps vigil round the sepulchre. 

0, Jesus, Lord, the God of Love, 
Come, wash our many crimes away ; 



84 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

Send down Thy Spirit from above, 
And lead the sinner home to Thee. 

Thou only Son of God, look down, 
Regard us with Thy gracious face ; 
Thy smile hath healed, Thy grace will crown, 
The broken heart of Magdalene. 

For Thou, these bleeding wounds to bind, 
Hast wandered long in desert wild ; 
The priceless gem, from earth refined, 
Above the morning stars shall shine. 

Of every wound physician sweet, 
Thou only hope of sorrowing souls, 
let the tears that bathed Thy feet, 
Among our darker stains flow down. 

And Mary, mother, ever dear, 
To thee the exiled children pray ; 
Through threat'ning storms, o'er billows drear, 
guide us safe to Jesus's arms.* 

* Office of St. Mary Magdalene, 



LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 85 



CHAPTER VII. 

AFFLICTION. 

" It is of the mercies of the Lord that we are not con- 
sumed ; because His commiserations have not failed. 
They are new every morning ; great is Thy faithful- 
ness. The Lord is my portion, said my soul ; there- 
fore will I wait for Him. The Lord is good to them 
that hope in Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It 
is good to wait with silence for the salvation of God. 
It is good for a man when he hath borne the yoke 
from his youth. He shall sit solitary and hold his 
peace; he shall put his mouth in the dust, if so be 
there may be hope, He shall give his cheek to him 
that striketh him, he shall be filled with reproaches. 
For the Lord will not cast off for ever. For if He 
hath cast off, He will also have mercy, according to 
the multitude of His mercies. For He hath not wil- 
lingly afflicted nor cast off the children of men." — 
Lamentations, iii., 23—33. 

Beokek down with sorrows, the family 
of the Magdalene had left their home near 



86 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

the lake of Genesareth, and had gone to 
sojourn in Bethany. Only two were now 
left, Martha and her brother Lazarus ; for 
the aged parents, too feeble to bear long 
the shock of grief, had gone to their rest ; 
and Mary, their pride, was worse than 
dead. They could not live so near the 
scene of their early happiness, surrounded 
by the mementos of one who was lost for 
ever. They did not know what peace 
the Messiah was to bring to their dwelling, 
nor how the good shepherd was to come 
one day with the straying lamb in his 
arms. They had heard of Jesus ; He had 
never crossed their threshold, but His mer- 
cy to their poor sister was to be the source 
of a new and wonderful affection. Who 
can then picture the scene when at last the 
prodigal came home, and she who had 
caused them so much misery suddenly re- 
turned to beg the pardon of man, which 
she had obtained of God ? This is one of 
the scenes of real life which far surpass the 
vividness of fable. And since man's fall 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 87 

it Las happened more than once. We 
dwell not then on the tears that were 
shed when the sisters, who once lived in 
each other, met again, after such a sepa- 
ration. We paint not the emotion of that 
brother who would have sacrificed life or 
any thing but his soul, to save his sister's 
honor. We repeat not the words that 
were spoken, when the memories of early- 
years came back, and the broken family 
circle told of those who would be quick 
to pardon, but whose voices were silent in 
death. It is enough to say that the pro- 
digal was at home, that the lost was 
found, and that happiness once more 
reigned in the house of Bethany. Who 
had wrought this change ? Who had re- 
stored the sinner \ The Magdalene told 
I with streaming eyes, how first in the crowd 
she met Jesus of Xazareth, how He had 
moved her heart, how He had done ail 
with a tenderness and wisdom which 
proved Him to be God. She never ceased 
to speak of Him, until Martha and Laza- 



88 LIFE OF ST. MART MAGDALENE. 

rus with, her confessed that He was the 
Christ, and went out to seek His grace. 
Whenever she found Him, she threw her- 
self at His feet, and listened to His words. 
She ministered to Him of her worldly- 
substance, and as He journeyed without 
food or shelter, her home became often 
His abode. There three hearts were 
drawn around the man of sorrows, by a 
bond such as earth cannot know. All 
loved Him; but the Magdalene surpassed 
all. We know not what He told them in 
these sacred visits, but He could not go 
there and leave not behind a blessing. 
Martha sought to serve Him and to care 
for His bodily wants, as He came in, 
wearied, or w r ounded by man's ingrati- 
tude. But Mary could think of nothing 
but Him, while He was present, and 
kneeling ever at His feet, begged Him 
to teach her new lessons of holiness. She 
had chosen the good part, and we may 
well wish that our lot could be like hers. 
A happier home could not be found 



LIFE OF ST. MABY MAGDALENE. 89 

on earth ; and as the visits of Jesus were 
daily looked for, God became in truth 
the light of that humble dwelling. Mary 
was too happy, and the great physician 
saw how her fervor needed chastening, 
how her faith would be strengthened by 
trial, and she herself by affliction prepared 
for greater sorrows. So in gentleness He 
took away some of tlie light, and drew 
the curtains of grief upon the house of 
Bethany. He went on a tour of preach- 
ing in Galilee, and the Magdalene could 
not follow Him, for her brother Lazarus 
was taken sick. His slight illness at first 
alarmed the devoted sisters, but as he 
grew rapidly worse they sent in all haste 
for Jesus. Their simple message was 
"Lord, he whom Thou lovest, is sick." 
No reply was made to this affecting en- 
treaty, save the remark which the disci- 
ples heard, " this sickness is not unto death, 
but for the glory of God, that the Son of 
God may be glorified by it." And our 

Lord did not hasten to their relief, but 
8* 



90 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

tarried two days in Galilee, that He might 
try their faith, purify them by affliction, 
and manifest His power in due time. 

Lazarus grew weaker and the sisters 
watched every moment for Jesus ; but He 
did not come. Hours seeded days, so 
anxiously did they hang over the ebbing 
life of their brother. At last the pang 
of death arrived ; the sufferer looked to- 
wards Jerusalem, professed his faith in 
the Messiah and quietly departed. Up to 
this moment they could not believe that 
their Lord would not come ; and now 
when it was all over, more vehement grief 
overcame them because the stroke was un- 
expected. The chamber that had echoed 
the groans and broken respirations of the 
dying, was now still ; the little family cir- 
cle was broken again. Martha had her 
burden of sorrow, for she and her brother 
had been together in joy and in affliction 
for years, and there had been no inter- 
ruption to the interchange of kindness. 
Upon whom should she now lean? But 



LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 91 

Mary was weighed clown with a deeper 
grief. The past was full of reproach to 
her, for she had almost broken the heart 
which now ceased to beat. She recalled 
the bitterness of her sins and felt how 
justly she suffered. In all the perverse** 
ness of her youth she could not remember 
one unkind word ; but she seemed to hear 
again her brother's gentle admonitions, 
mingled with his tears, i^nd when she 
came back to the home she alone had 
made desolate, he had not once reproach- 
ed her for the past, but seemed to em- 
brace her with more tenderness, lest she 
should think he had not fully forgiven 
her. So wept in silence these fond sis- 
ters, and the hand of God was heavy up- 
on them. Yet in the bereavement of the 
Magdalene, there was no element of re- 
bellion, no disposition to question the di- 
vine will. She knew that this was a pun- 
ishment for sin, and overwhelmed w r ith 
her burden, she yet thanked God for the 
penance. One tie on earth remained; 



92 LIFE OF ST. MAEY MAGDALENE. 

and the heart she had given to Jesus was 
so much more free from human chains. 
The consecration should be perfect ; her- 
self and all she had should be laid at His 
feet. Thus, out of her affliction she gain- 
ed two graces; a deeper sense of her own 
unworthiness, and a more single love to 
her deliverer. For ten days the body of 
Lazarus lay waiting for the Messiah, for 
there was still a hope that His hand would 
intervene. He did not come, and there- 
fore, with the rites of the ancient law, in 
hope of resurrection, and in the expecta- 
tion of Christ, the dead was committed to 
the grave. Many Jews were present at 
the funeral to comfort the afflicted, for the 
deceased was known by many, and en- 
deared to all by his charity. 

The wise man tells us that it is better 
to go to the house of mourning, than to 
the house of feasting; and here, there- 
fore, is an important lesson for the peni- 
tent. If we have tried to imitate the 
Magdalene in her contrition, let us not 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 93 

shrink back when chastisement, the mark 
of a Father's love, overtakes us. Sooner 
or later we must suffer for our sins ; and 
there are many reasons why He, who 
knows our frame, will not exempt us from 
affliction. When He forgives our debt, 
He does not take away the consequences 
of our transgression. There is a temporal 
penalty, which He is too good to avert. 
For the great work of our sanctification 
demands from us patience, toil and suffer- 
ing. Our wills need to be conformed to 
His in all things, our passions need to 
be entirely subdued and self-love to be 
changed into a pure worship of God. So 
the merciful physician applies to each soul 
the remedy it needs, and if we are patient 
and faithful, all is well ; if we rebel we 
lose every thing. 3Ian} T come to this trial 
and foil when the ^oal is almost gained. 
To a sinner God hardly ever gives great 
grace without annexing to it a correspond- 
ing pain. He does not, perhaps, obscure 
the bright days of pardon by the shadows 



94 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

of discipline, but in due time His hand is 
seen, and the unerring knife descends into 
our wounds. There are afflictions such as 
the loss of health, of friends, or of tem- 
poral possessions. They come where they 
are needed with marvellous accuracy, and 
do more for the soul than a thousand 
days of sunshine. The world loses its 
power of attraction, old habits are bro- 
ken down, and self-complacency is scourg- 
ed into confusion. The created sun de- 
parts and the true light rises upon the 
scene. One would think that the experi- 
ence of sin would be sufficient to keep us 
humble ; but, alas, the rod must be held 
over us, or pride will again assert its su- 
premacy. For such as really seek holiness 
there are spiritual trials more refining 
still, and pangs which have a wonderful 
power to detach the soul from earth. The 
good shepherd leads into dry places and 
then hides himself. Mght comes ol and 
we know not where we are, or take our- 
selves for lost. Our efforts for our own 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 95 

sanctification and the conversion of others 
seem to have no success. The tide sets 
against us, and evils we cannot remedy ac- 
cumulate around us, and God withdraws 
himself, as if He cared not for His own 
glory. It is a keen pain for the heart 
which worships and is silent. But, fellow 
sinner, does the Creator need any help from 
creatures ? Must the Most High walk ac- 
cording to our wisdom, and accomplish 
his plans in the ways of our devising ? No, 
let us throw ourselves on the ground, and 
be patient until the storm passes. " It is 
good to wait with silence for the salvation 
of God. It is good for a man when he 
hath borne the yoke from his youth. He 
shall sit solitary and hold his peace ; he 
shall put his mouth in the dust." What if 
the shaft of ingratitude pierce the breast, 
and the tongue of calumny utter its re- 
proaches ? The page that God seeth is 
the page by which we shall be judged. 
But in this crucible of mercy, the dross 
shall be purged out of the gold, secret 



96 LIFE OF ST. MAEY MAGDALENE. 

sins shall be punished, little infidelities be 
brought to light, and the foundations of 
sanctity securely laid. When darkness 
covers us we look for Jesus, and He does 
not come. We watch for Hirn, and there 
is, perhaps, no sign of His presence. This 
watching will do us more good, sometimes, 
than even the sight of Him we look for. 
Let us watch in faith, for though He tarry 
long He certainly will come in His own 
time. As we have been sinners we must 
prepare to suffer, nor can we justly look for 
our reward before we have earned it. The 
great day approaches when secret things 
shall be made manifest, the dreadful day 
when justice shall be dispensed. Then 
the faithful may look for an uninterrupted 
sun-light, and a peace which nothing can 
disturb. Till then we have to cast our- 
selves into the hand of Him who made 
and redeemed us, and let Him do with us 
as He pleases. The sparrow does not fall 
to the ground without His knowledge, and 
every providence is directed for our puri- 






LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 97 

fication. Patience will win the crown, 
while discontent will rob ns of peace, and 
take the merit from our sacrifices. What- 
ever cross, then, God sends, let ns bear it 
cheerfully, and if possible, silently. If it 
be a heavy blow which stuns us, or a succes- 
sion of trials Vhich vex ns, or a continnal 
cross which wears upon us, let ns endeav- 
or to be thankful. Time is short, and 
much must be done before we are ready 
for the day of account, before we are fit 
for heaven. If ever we reach that abode 
of saints, we must have no will but God's ; 
and, therefore, we need to learn on earth 
the lesson of His sovereignty, not only by 
power, but by grace and love. " Blessed 
is the man that endureth temptation, for 
when he hath been proved, he shall re- 
ceive the crown of life, which God hath 
promised to them that love Him." Such 
! is the comfort of the sinner. In other dis- 
pensations he is not certain of the divine 
favor ; in affliction he knows that mercy 
is waiting upon him. u "Whom the Lord 



98 LIFE OF ST. MARY ■ MAGDALENE. 

loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every 
son whom lie receiveth. And though 
chastisement for the present seemeth to 
bring with it sorrow, yet, afterwards, it 
will yield to them that are exercised by it 
the most peaceable fruit of justice." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ANSWER TO PRAYER. 

" Lord, Thy work in the midst of the years 
bring it to life : in the midst of the years Thou shalt 
make it known : when Thou art angry, Thou wilt re- 
member mercy. God will come from the south, and 
the Holy One from mount Pharan : His glory cover- 
ed the heavens, and the earth is full of His praise." 
— Habacuc, iii., 2, 3. 

We approach another stage in the path 
of penitence, and are to learn how God 
values the prayer of the contrite, and in 
the midst of wrath remembers mercy. 
Our blessed Lord was keenly alive to the 



LIFE OF ST. MAEY MAGDALEXE. 99 

sorrows of mankind, and most tender in 
His affections. As man He had but one 
natural tie, and that was a filial love deep- 
er and stronger than any child of Adam 
had ever known. He had left His mother 
alone, to give us an example of detach- 
ment, and to lead her in her singular path 
of perfection. Yet not for one moment 
did He forget that mother, not when the 
busy throng pressed around Him, not when 
He passed the night on the mountain in 
prayer, or laid His head upon the hard 
couch of the desert. She was ever before 
Him, as tender and watchful as when she 
guarded His infant slumbers. All ties 
which bind the heart to earth, were in 
this one bond which fastened Him to His 
mother. He loved Lazarus and his sis- 
ters. He saw the desolation which death 
had made at Bethany, and wept with the 
mourners. When the affliction had done 
its salutary work, He would arise and 
show His strength which had been hid- 
den and drive death before His face. The 



100 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

time had come for Him to revive His 
work. u He said to His disciples : let us 
go into Judea again. They say to Him, 
Rabbi, the Jews but just now sought 
to stone Thee ; and goest Thou thither 
again? Jesus answered, are there not 
twelve hours in the day ? If a man walk 
in the day, he stumbleth not, because he 
seeth the light of this world : but if he 
walk in the night, he stumbleth, because 
the light is not in him. These things, He 
said, and after that, He said to them ; 
Lazarus, our friend, sleepeth : but I go 
that I may awake him out of sleep. His 
disciples therefore said, Lord if he sleep, 
he shall do well. He then said to them 
plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am 
glad, for your sake, that I was not there, 
that you may believe : but let us go to 
him." So the master of life and death 
began His journey to the house of mourn- 
ing. He was going to prove himself the 
resurrection, and He could have bowed 
the hills before Him, or crushed to pieces 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAG-DALEXE. 101 

the mountains that stood in His way. He 
Trent by a wearisome journey on foot, and 
arrived exhausted at the gate of Bethany. 
The two sisters were at home surrounded 
by the friends who had come to comfort 
them. As soon as some one announced 
that Jesus of Nazareth was coming, Mar- 
tha arose and went to meet Him. One 
glance at our Lord revealed to her how 
He had suffered in her bereavement, and 
gave her hope that even now death would 
be overcome. "Lord," said she, M if Thou 
hadst been here, my brother had not died. 
But now also I know that whatever Thou 
shalt ask of God, He will give it Thee.'* 
Could there be a stronger profession of 
faith, or a more affecting appeal to the 
heart of a friend ? " Jesus said to her, 
thy brother shall rise again. Martha 
said to Him, I know that he shall rise 
again, in the resurrection, at the last day. 
Jesus replied, I am the resurrection and 
the life. He that belie vet h in me, al- 
though he be dead, shall live ; and every 



102 LIFE OF ST. MAEY MAGDALENE. 

one that liveth, and believeth in me, shall 
not die for ever. Belie vest thou this ? She 
saith to Him : Yea, Lord, I have believ- 
ed that Thou art Christ, the Son of the 
living God, who art come into this world." 
With this fervent and public confession, 
she seemed to read our Lord's purpose. 
She dried her tears, and with a smile of 
joy awaited the end. "Go," said He, 
" and call the Magdalene, and come hith- 
er." Mary sat in the house weeping, 
when she heard the summons of her Mas- 
ter. She arose quickly and flew to meet 
Him. He was not yet in the town, but 
was gradually approaching when Martha 
met Him. At a distance Mary saw the 
form of her redeemer, and knew every 
feature of the face she loved so well. His 
feet were covered with the dust of travel, 
and His whole frame seemed to bow un- 
der fatigue, while His eyes showed traces 
of weeping. She ran and took her place 
at His feet, and the tears once more fell 
down upon the sacred flesh, as she said, 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 103 

u Lord if Thou hadst been here, my bro- 
ther had not died." Her grief had been 
so great, that when she started suddenly 
and left the house, the Jews who were 
trying to comfort her, supposed she had 
gone to the sepulchre to weep ; and they 
followed her until they found her pros- 
trate before our Lord. The tears she shed 
were more expressive than words, and 
moved so deeply the Son of God. that He 
gave way to His own sorrow and wept. 
To Martha He had spoken, to Mary He 
utters not a word. It pained Him to 
witness the woe which sin had brought 
into the world, and to see the chastise- 
ment which in mercy He had sent upon 
the already broken heart. He simply 
asks, " where have you laid him ? They 
say to Him, Lord, come and see." And 
He followed them to the grave, weeping 
bitterly, and groaning in spirit, till Mary 
began to tremble at His sorrow, and the 
by-standers exclaimed, " behold how He 
loved him !" They arrived at the cave 



104 LIFE OF ST. MAEY MAGDALENE. 

where Lazarus liad been laid, when at the 
command of Jesus, the stone was remov- 
ed, and all were silent as He lifted up 
His eyes to thank the Father of all for 
this new manifestation of His glory in 

the face of the world, and in behalf of 

; \ 

those whom He loved. Then with a loud 
voice He bade the dead to awake, and 
Lazarus came forth though his feet and 
hands were bound with winding-bands, and 
his face was covered with a napkin. The 
disciples unloosed the bands, and the bro- 
ther restored fell upon his knees before 
his God, and then ran to the embrace of 
his sisters. No trace of death was seen in 
his features; even the grace and life of 
youth returned, and as the fruitful germ 
springs from the dying seed, so he arose 
more beautiful, because he had slept in 
Jesus and awaked at the sound of His 
voice. The multitude were confounded 
at the sight, for more startling than death 
itself is the resurrection of the dead. 
Some were convinced of His divinity and 



LIFE OF ST. MA1RY MAGDALENE. 105 

professed their faith in Him, while others 
went to the Pharisees to still more excite 
their anger. Jesus went to the house of 
Bethany to bless the home He had made 
glad, and then left for the toils of His 
ministry. We know not the events of 
that meeting, nor the words He spoke at 
parting, but we may well imagine how 
gratitude heightened their adoration, and 
how the Magdalene renewed her vow to 
love Him above all things. He had turn- 
ed sorrow into joy, and brought life from 
death. 

It is well to dwell upon the grief of 
our Lord which the evangelist here 
records, because it has an important inter- 
est in our history. There is little doubt 
that the man of sorrows wept many times 
while He was on earth. How could it 
be otherwise? He had His own share 
of pain ; but this of itself did not weigh 
upon Him. The afflictions of His mo- 
ther moved Him beyond all expression, 
for He felt the slightest shadow that 



106 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

crossed her path, and watched the traces 
of grief which fixed themselves upon her 
face. The ingratitude of men moved 
Him also, for the great treasures of 
heaven, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, were to 
be wasted upon so many. We read how 
He shed tears of anguish over Jerusalem 
because the day of grace was drawing to 
a close. And as He beheld the woe of { 
Martha and Mary, ten thousand thoughts, 
which we cannot understand, were present 
to His all-knowing mind. He contem- 
plated man's first disobedience, and death, 
its consequence. He sympathized with 
the desolation of the mourners, for He 
was their friend, and Lazarus had been 
very dear to His heart. He was keenly 
agitated by the tears of the penitent, and 
her half-reproachful words : u Lord if Thou 
hadst been here my brother had not died." 
He had not been there ; He had kept 
away through love ; and yet it moved 
Him to lay the rod of affliction upon one 
whom He had so wonderfully chosen, one 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 107 

who had showed Him more devotion than 
any creature, since He had been torn from 
His mother's arms. Then He looked for- 
ward but a few days, and Calvary came 
before Him. Some were standing there 
who should see the miracle, and then go 
to stir up the Jews, and to ask for His 
arrest. In a short time He too should be 
in a sepulchre, and a stone should be rolled 
at the door, and His mother should be 
watching with these broken-hearted sis- 
ters. He should arise with life for all 
mankind, but His own nation should 
refuse the offer of mercy. What wonder 
that He groaned in spirit and was 
troubled ? And what effect, do we sup- 
pose, this sorrow of the Son of God had 
upon the Magdalene ? It is the hardest 
thing in this world to bear the grief of 
those we love. We can better endure 
our own pains. How then should the 
penitent's tears have gushed forth, when 
Jesus, whose peace no tumult ever ruffled, 
was so overcome ? It terrified her to see 



108 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

Him weep so bitterly, and every drop 
that ran down His face was more precious 
to her than gold, for now she began to 
know how He had loved her, and to re- 
proach herself for having too quickly 
expressed her sorrows. She had wept, 
and He had made her a child of God. 
He weeps now, and every grief but His 
vanishes out of sight, and she realizes that 
He is the bridegroom of her heart. Poor 
Magdalene I she did not know how much 
her love would cost her, and how she was 
to descend into a deeper darkness, where 
none should be found but the Mother, and 
the disciple whose head had been pillowed 
upon the breast of her Jesus. 

The great lesson of this chapter marks 
an important stage in the life of the 
repenting sinner. After the shower the 
clouds break away, and the sun shines 
forth. Out of affliction comes grace. 
Jesus who had appeared to hide himself 
comes to our doors, and death flees before 
His presence. All light comes where He 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 109 

manifests himself. In the midst of wrath 
He remembers mercy; He revives His 
work, and displays His omnipotence. 
a The ancient mountains are crushed to 
pieces, and the hills are bowed down by 
the journeys of His eternity." When man 
learns His weakness, God makes known 
His strength. Hence to watch for Jesus, 
especially in time of trial, is a condition of 
the penitent's life. Prayer is the suste- 
nance of his soul. He needs his Lord, 
and cannot live without Him ; he begs 
Him to come, and he looks for Him until 
he sees Him. We can accomplish nothing 
without prayer ; whereas if we persevere 
in our petitions we can obtain every 
thing. Does the sinner expect to be 
saved if he does not seek salvation above 
all things ? Can we suppose that he 
desires grace if he will not ask for it ? 
And yet of all things prayer is most neg- 
lected. Some pray not at all ; some give 
to God a few hurried words at night; 
some remember their Creator in the 
10 



110 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

morning. But how few there are who 
learn to pray without ceasing ! How few 
meditate upon the truths of revelation, or 
seek to judge their consciences by the 
rule which will settle their eternal destiny ! 
Even of those whom mercy has reclaimed 
from gross sins, how few aim for holiness, 
or have any idea of returning love for 
love ! Is it because God is not worth our 
toils, or that the riches of heaven are too 
poor to stimulate exertion? . The world 
has its servants, and every one recognizes 
its right to their labors. Men wear them- 
selves out, and go to a premature grave, 
for the treasures which they cannot carry 
with them. It is all right, according to 
the opinion of the age, to struggle night 
and day for a temporal good. It is folly 
to work for the things unseen, or pretend 
to be enamored with the beauty of the 
Creator, or truly grateful for the suffer- 
ings of Jesus. So many begin well the 
spiritual life, and endure for a few days 
or months ! The old tempter comes, the 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. Ill 

world seduces, God tries thern, and they 
slip back to the arms of the old master. 
Now we say that all these miserable 
backslidings can be avoided, and that the 
penitent may go on steadily towards 
heaven, if he w^ill pray, and put an unfail- 
ing trust in Christ. In prosperity he 
needs to look to Jesus, for pride will pre- 
cede his fall. In affliction he has but one 
resource, and if he watch and faint not, 
the Lord will come and give such an 
answer to his prayer as he had never 
imagined. One day is to God as a thou- 
sand years. He can work wonders, open 
the grave, or crush the mountains at His 
will. The only fear is that we get tired 
of abiding His time, and turning our eyes 
from Him, undertake to help ourselves. 
If we do this we may get human consola- 
tion ; but will it make up for one ap- 
proving smile we lose from Him who died 
for us ? Ah ! how we cheat ourselves 
when we turn our backs upon the door 
which Jesus is entering, and welcome the 



112 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

creature which comes to rob us of that 
simplicity which no wealth can buy. Let 
us pray always, and sitting like the Mag- 
dalene, have, but one wish, u Come Lord 
Jesus, come quickly." Gratitude should 
bind us to the feet where we found par- 
don, and lead us to see Him always before 
our face, who is our only light in this pil- 
grimage. So the good shepherd will 
guide us to His rest, not by a sudden 
transition from darkness to light, but by 
pouring upon us, as we can bear them, the 
beams of the heavenly sun, and by 
gradually conforming us to the perfection 
He requires. At any rate, let the sinner 
pray, and sooner or later Jesus will come, 
to take him from every snare, to turn 
every adversity or temptation to his sane- 
tification. 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 113 



CHAPTER IX. 

PERSONAL LOYE OF OUR LORD. 

" My beloved is white and ruddy, chosen out of 
thousands. His head is as the finest gold ; His locks 
as branches of palm-trees, black as a raven ; His 
eyes as doves upon brooks of water, which are wash- 
ed with milk, and sit beside the plentiful streams. 
His cheeks are as beds of aromatical spices, set by 
the perfumers. His lips are as lilies, dropping 
choice myrrh. His hands are turned and as of gold, 
full of hyacinths : His form is as of Libanus, ex- 
cellent as the cedars. His throat most sweet, and 
He is all lovely : such is my Beloved, and He is 
my friend, O ye daughters of Jerusalem." — Canti- 
de% v., 10-16. 

From the time of her conversion, the 

Magdalene was animated by one impulse. 

Her strong affection for our Lord became, 

as it were, her principle of life. She lived 

for Him alone, and He became to her the 
10* 



114 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

fullness of all that heart could desire or 
mind conceive. In the deepest night He 
had brought her light, and turned her 
gieat sorrows into joy. Because of her 
helplessness, He. had taken her up with 
peculiar tenderness, and because of her 
destitution He had poured upon her the 
riches of His grace. What could she do 
in return? She gave Him all she had, 
a heart sick of the world, and grieved for 
sin ; and all her affections entwined them- 
selves around her deliverer. She had 
followed His teachings, and His rod and 
staff had led her along to that pure love 
which is far stronger than death, which 
neither height nor depth, nor any other 
creature can break. The shadows of afflic- 
tion had been sweet, for they had brought 
her nearer to Him. Now the shadow of 
the Cross was approaching to envelop 
her, and the light of her life was to be 
put out in darkness. How will she bear 
the sight of Calvary? "We shall see 
what that holy place can do for the peni- 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE, 115 

tent. There, He that is lifted up draws 
all true hearts unto himself. 

A few days before the great feast of the 
passover, Jesus of Nazareth, was seen ap- 
proaching Bethany. He was on His way 
to Jerusalem, where, at last, the true pas- 
chal sacrifice was to be offered. He 
paused at the house of Martha and Mary, 
to make them His final earthly visit. They 
went out to meet Him, and welcomed 
Him with unusual joy, for ever since the 
resurrection of Lazarus, the Jews had 
been seeking to kill Him. Why was He 
going again to the city of His enemies? 
There was a peculiar gentleness in His 
tones as He returned their salutations, but 
the Magdalene, who knelt at His feet, 
read the meaning of His sadness. The 
fire was kindled at last ; the baptism of 
blood was nigh, and He had come to say 
farewell. It was the evening of the Sab- 
bath, and on the morrow He was to turn 
His steps towards Jerusalem. She recall- 
ed the scene where first she sought pardon 



116 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

and found more than love. If this was 
to be the last meeting, what could she do 
but repeat her offering ? It would testi- 
fy her gratitude ; it would renew her re- 
pentance. It would be another tie be- 
tween her and the God of Jier soul. So 
again, as they sat down to supper, the 
Magdalene bathed His feet with her tears, 
poured upon them the costly spikenard, 
and wiped them with her hair. The 
heart of Jesus was moved, for He well un- 
derstood the penitent's love, and looked 
forward to the sepulchre where so soon 
these hands should come to anoint His 
dead body. And when Judas Iscariot 
murmured at what he called a waste, He 
reproved him for his avarice, declaring 
that this was the preparation for His bur- 
ial ; that the world He was about to re- 
deem should never forget the tears of the 
lamb which He had brought from the wil- 
derness to His Father's house. Where- 
ever He should be loved, the forgiven sin- 
ner should be remembered. The Magda- 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 117 

lene did not know what mystery her mas- 
ter's words signified, though edooni cover- 
ed all her future. He spoke of burial ; 
was He then in truth to die ? were her 
frightful dreams to be realized I She had 
seen Him in the beauty which the Holy 
Ghost pictures in the Canticles, and no 
language was equal to her experience of 
His attractions; yet in all His spotless 
whiteness He was ruddy, and blood seem- 
ed to flow from His head, and to stain 
His hands and feet. The paleness of 
death seemed to cover the countenance 
which was like Lebanon, and to blanch 
the lips which were like lilies, dropping 
sweet-smelling myrrh. Who would read 
to her this riddle ? Was it at this price 
that He had bought her, and for her re- 
covery must Be be sacrificed ? She knew 
not. One thing alone she knew, that she 
had never loved Him as now, that no- 
thing should ever separate her from Him. 
He might leave her ; she would never for- 
sake Him. She would follow him to Je- 



118 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

rusalem, and if death were to be His por- 
tion, it should find her at His feet. 

Here let this great saint by her exam- 
ple guide the repenting sinner. It is a 
most important lesson in the work of con- 
version. The love of God is the service 
required of every human heart, without 
which all our good works are of no avail. 
It is the end of Christianity to bring us to 
such a love as shall drive away every 
lesser affection, and make every earthly 
attraction fade into insignificance. Fallen 
from our first estate by original sin, we 
have lost the clear intuition of the 
supremely beautiful and good, and the 
vanity of creatures has strange power to 
seduce us. God is still seen, but at a dis- 
tance ; and the charms of apparent good 
are all around us. How shall we trample 
under our feet the meshes of the tempter, 
tear away the veil of sense and find our 
way to Him, who alone is worthy of the 
soul? Faith, prayer and purity, will lead 
us by steps to that light seemingly inac- 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 119 

cessible, where dwelleth in His infinite 
loveliness the Father of our spirits. Yet 
to aid us in this way of love, God himself 
has condescended to be our guide. He 
has taken our nature and become man, to 
give us an example of unfallen humanity, 
and to reveal in himself the amiableness 
of the Godhead. Jesus Christ is our 
maker and our brother, our Redeemer, 
and our all. In Him we behold the beau- 
ties which the eye trembles to look at in 
the dazzling brightness of heaven. God 
has become visible, has a human face, and 
a human heart ; and infinite claims upon 
our affections are added to infinite attrac- 
tions. The incarnate Lord wins all pure 
hearts by love in all its forms, by attrac- 
tion, by gratitude, by union. He is the 
bridegroom of chaste souls, who are too 
happy to admit no lover but Him. He is 
the supreme rest of the pilgrim, who in 
this wilderness finds no comfort or sup- 
port out of His arms. And when once 
the eyes are open to the charms which 



120 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

dwell in Him, earth, seems barren and the 
creature unlovely. The thought of Him 
fills the breast with sweetness, while the 
familiar knowledge of His perfections 
forms the secret treasure of the just, with 
which no stranger can intermeddle. The 
more the heart knows Him, the more is it 
drawn to that embrace, which makes the 
eye of faith clearer than that of sense, and 
anticipates the felicity of the life to come. 
And what right has the sinner to such 
nearness to the king of kings, the crea- 
ture defiled by iniquity to the enjoyment 
of his Creator ? It is all the work of re- 
deeming grace ; for He who comes on 
earth to attract _our love, gives the love 
which He asks, enables us to seek the truth, 
and opens the eye to see the attractions 
which He reveals. And at what cost has 
He accomplished all this ? At the price 
of His condescension, at the cost of His sor- 
row and death. Sad was His way when 
He came among the thorns the children 
of the vineyard had prepared for Him; 



LIFF OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 121 

for ingratitude was the portion that made 
His cup to overflow. When the soul 
awakes to a sense of His mercies it is lost 
in wonder at the love, which, sparing no 
sacrifice, has been a beggar for its accept- 
ance, and turning to the heart opened on 
Calvary, the Redeemer and the redeemed 
are bound together by a chain which nei- 
ther time nor eternity can break. The 
penitent has such experience of the sweet- 
ness of Jesus, that while he ever grieves 
for the crimes which still bring suffering, 
he remembers with exceeding joy what 
his very want has made known to him of 
the fullness of grace. He looks back to 
the desert where famine followed close up- 
on shame, and the stings of remorse pur- 
sued him to despair. Dear, beyond all 
that tongue can tell, is the voice that 
spoke in gentleness to his misery, the hand 
that raised him up to go repenting to his 
Father. More tender than the tones of a 
mother were the words which led him to 

the feet of his deliverer. It was the most 
11 

» 



122 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

clement and sweet Virgin bringing to the 
exile the fruit of her womb, Jesus. The 
incarnation of his God became a living 
truth to him, and Mary led him to the 
bosom where he found peace, and taught 
him how to love and serve the Word made 
flesh. Now every day brings new knowl- 
edge, as the good shepherd leads him 
on where the barren land becomes a 
fruitful valley, and the wilderness blos- 
soms as the rose. Through rough wastes 
or tangled forests, he is safe with such a 
leader. The Red Sea is divided, and the 
Jordan becomes dry land. The cross his 
master carries weighs upon his shoulders, 
and the bleeding flesh testifies to the work 
of purification going on within. Faint 
sometimes, yet ever pressing on, justice 
exacts her due, and the fires which burn 
around him are of the refiner's kindling. 
He reaches the mountain height, and 
earth lies far below him, where but a few 
days ago he was the victim of sin. Such 
is the power of grace. It seeks hearts 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 123 

most unworthy of its abode, triumphs 
over every opposition, transforms the 
whole man, and imprints upon the out- 
cast the likeness of Jesus, 

Fellow sinner, the way is open before 
thee. The assurance of pardon is given 
in the tribunal where God meets the re- 
turning prodigal. Go, seek the feet of 
your Saviour, and there like Magdalene 
learn the lessons of holiness. If your sins 
be like crimson, there is the fountain 
wdiick will make you whiter than snow. 
Now you feel your own wretchedness, 
and are lonely, for divine sympathy alone 
can reach your heart. Cast off your bur- 
den upon Him whose mangled shoulders 
bore the weight which crushes you. Then, 
as abiding sorrow for sin is the test of 
your sincerity and evidence of persever- 
ance, cling fast to Him and follow Him 
wherever He guides you. You are not 
penitent if you do not love Him, and if 
you love Him, you cannot be happy sep- 
arated from Him. You will seek Him in 



124: LIFE OF ST. MAEY MAGDALENE. 

prayer, in the sacraments, above all at His 
altar. Your thoughts, words and actions 
will be directed to His gloiy, and each 
day will see some advance in the work of 
self-mastery. Choose Jesus for your king, 
and obey Him ; choose Him for your lov- 
er, and give Him your affections. He 
will be faithful to you, if you do not de- 
sert Him. The work of sanctification 
cannot be accomplished is a moment, nor 
is the path to heaven an easy road. There 
is much to be done before the towers of 
the celestial city can delight the eye of 
the pilgrim. The rough ways have to be 
made smooth, the mountains laid low, and 
the valleys exalted. True love of Christ 
will give the patience necessary for vic- 
tory. If we seek Him, and not ourselves, 
what matters it where He leads us ? We 
shall follow Him to Mount Calvary, and 
there be taught the secret of the Christian 
life. But we would rather be in Golgotha 
with Him than any where else without 
Him. To assist us in this strong personal 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 125 

love of Jesus, let us often reflect upon 
His beauty, His special providence over 
us, and the end He proposes to accomplish 
in us. He is the chief among ten thou- 
sand. His hand painted the external 
world, whose gorgeous apparel is a faint 
image of the loveliness of the Creator. 
Look for ever at nature, and the eye can- 
not be satiated. Every moral beauty 
finds in Him its origin and its fullness. 
One glance of His face would not only 
dazzle the transported vision, but pour in- 
to the soul the felicity of heaven. Now 
we see Him only by faith, yet it is no 
other than He, the great Redeemer, 
Emmanuel, God with us, who goes before 
us so meek and lowly ; the good shepherd, 
the man of sorrows. He watches us far 
more closely than we look for Him. The 
hair does not fall from our heads without 
His knowledge, and each event of our 
lives is ordered for our purification. Now 
we swerve from the road, and need chas- 
tisement, and He gives it to us so gently 
11* 



126 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

that we are filled with admiration at His 
mercy. Now we need detachment from 
earthly things, and the jealous master 
touches oar idol, and it crumbles, or loses 
its power to charm. No mother ever fol- 
lowed an erring child with the love with 
which He pursues us. He hedges about 
our way, so that we lose not by willfulness 
the good of His providence. And the 
end of all His toil is only to make us like 
unto himself, to imprint upon us His own 
character, and then to crown us with 
glory, to take us to His own throne. If 
mercy so free, so undeserved, and so ad- 
mirable does not move us, sin has well 
nigh quenched the fountains of feeling, 
and extinguished the nobility of our na- 
ture. Here in the Word made flesh, man 
finds the true, the good and the beautiful, 
for which his soul longs, and without 
which immortal life becomes an eternal 
death. Nor can creatures fill up the want 
of the intellectual being, which made in 
God's image can never take error for 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 127 

truth, or the finite for the infinite. The 
love of Jesus is the secret of peace on 
earth, and bliss in heaven. Here is a 
friend on whose bosom we may lean with- 
out fear. All things are easy with Him, 
and in His presence there is no real sor- 
row. He will heal our infirmities, wean 
us from all hurtful affections, and bring us 
one day to a union which can never be 
broken. Happy is the soul whom He 
guides, whose impulses are but responses 
to the calls of His voice. 



CHAPTEE X. 

THE PENITENT'S SHARE IN THE PASSION. 

" God forbid that I should glory but in the cross 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is 
crucified unto me and I unto the world." — Gala- 
tians, vi., 14. 

After the scenes recorded in the last 
chapter, our Lord withdrew from Bethany, 



128 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 



and continued His journey toward Jeru- 
salem. The Magdalene, full of appre- 
hension for the future, had resolved to 
follow Him ; and quietly quitting her 
home was on her way to the holy city. 
At the entrance of Jerusalem, the man 
of sorrows received His only earthly tri- 
umph. Although the Jews had sought 
to kill Him, and had laid plans to take 
Him, yet now, moved by some wonderful 
impulse, the whole multitude runs to wel- 
come Him. They cut down the leaves of 
the palm-trees and strew them in the way, 
and the air resounds with their cries of 
" Hosanna in the highest," " Blessed is He 
that cometh in the name of the Lord." 
The disciples are filled with astonishment. 
They had tried to persuade our Lord not 
to trust himself to their fury, and behold 
He receives the triumph of a conqueror. 
The Magdalene knew how they had been 
plotting His death, and now to her great 
surprise, beheld Him, the object of ap- 
plause, riding into Jerusalem as a king, 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 129 

crowned with honor. Yet it was no small 
joy to witness this scene, and to unite her 
praise to the chorus of the populace, 
welcoming to His own temple the promised 
Messiah, the son of David to David's 
city. But as the voices of the crowd grew 
louder, and the palm-branches' waved 
around Him, no smile of satisfaction passed 
over our Lord's countenance, or chased 
away the sad and earnest gaze with which 
He looked on Jerusalem. This triumph 
gave Him no gladness, though for a few mo- 
ments it raised the hopes of the disciples. 
The loving penitent read His face, and a 
load fell upon her heart, the presentiment 
of some approaching woe, a depression 
which the brilliant present could not shake 
off. She followed the crowd until they 
were weary with the pageant, and began 
to disperse, as Jesus withdrew with His 
apostles. This was the one day of exul- 
tation, but on the morrow all things were 
changed. The Scribes and Pharisees, 
vexed at the popular outbreak in His 



130 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

favor, began to put their schemes in active 
operation. They circulated stories con- 
cerning His mission, spreading the report 
that He purposed to overthrow the temple 
and the law of Moses, and to excite re- 
bellion against Caesar. So in a short time 
every one's mouth was filled with re- 
proaches of our Lord, and spies were sent 
out to find an opportunity to apprehend 
Him. The Magdalene heard these bitter 
words with grief, and sought in vain to 
find her master that she might warn Him 
of the danger. But He was occupied 
with His disciples, and no power could 
take Him till His time was come. At 
last she heard that one of the twelve had 
offered to betray Him, and had actually 
sold Him to the chief-priests for thirty 
pieces of silver. She ran through the 
streets of the city to ascertain the truth 
of this report, but she aw^oke not to the 
dreadful reality till one night she heard 
the shouts of a mob deriding their victim, 
and found that they had taken Jesus. 



LIFE OF ST. MART MAGDALENE. 131 

Terrified and half frantic with, grief, she 
went out to be assured of the sight, when 
she beheld the beloved of her soul 
covered with blood, and the object of 
abuse to the same multitude which only 
four days before had greeted Him with 
hosannas. They had tied a huge rope 
ground His waist and were dragging Him 
furiously along to the palace of the high- 
priest. He was weak, for He had just 
come from His agony ; but He was sur- 
rounded by a merciless band of ruffians 
armed with clubs, and they were con- 
tinually reviling Him. St. John was the 
only disciple who followed the crowd, the 
only friend who seemed to be near. 
Gladly would she have run to give Him 
her sympathy, but the violence of the 
mob soon bore Him out of Her sight, and 
almost distracted she sank to the ground. 
What could she do now ) She knew not 
where to seek for help, and she feared 
everything from the infuriated populace. 
She could look to God alone, and she 



132 LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 

passed all that dreadful night in prayer, 
and the eyes which were almost destroyed 
by weeping gushed out new torrents of 
wild agony. The morning came at last, 
and with its first dawn she went out to 
seek for news of Jesus. She heard how 
the chief-priests had condemned Him, 
and had carried Him to Pilate for sen- 
tence of crucifixion. Up to this time 
she could not believe that He would be 
put to death ; but now strange memories 
of what the prophets had written came 
to her mind, as she recalls the wonderful 
words of Isaias concerning the Messiah. 
He was in the hall of Pilate waiting his 
decision, but she could not get admission, 
or even draw nigh the entrance which 
was surrounded by a guard of soldiers, 
and beset by the crowd clamoring for 
death. Soon she saw the officers lead Him 
out, and place Him in sight of the people. 
They had stripped off His clothes to the 
waist, and His hands were tied behind 
Him, while on His head rested a crown of 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 133 

thorns from which the blood was flowing 
profusely. They lead Him to a pillar 
and tie Him fast, while two ruffians ap- 
proach with knotted scourges and begin 
their work. The poor Magdalene cannot 
endure this sight, for every blow that 
tears His flesh lacerates her heart. There 
is neither groan nor murmur, and it seems 
as if He must die under the torture. She 
expects to see Him fall and expire ; but 
not so was it appointed that the Lamb of 
God should die. The altar is not yet 
prepared, and the Mother has not come 
to the oblation. After a short time Pilate 
comes forth, and declares that he has 
found no cause of death in Jesus of Naza- 
reth, and that he must release Him. Then 
shouts of " crucify Him, crucify Him " go 
up, and fearful yells demand His cruci- 
fixion. The soldiers show Him once more 
to the mob. They seize Him, almost ex- 
hausted with the loss of blood, and upon 
His mangled back they put a purple gar- 
ment. It is the symbol of royalty, and 
12 



134 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

accords well with. His thorny crown. 
Cries of derision then fill the air, as 
those near Him strike Him with their 
clubs, spit in His face, and shout " Hail, 
king of the Jews." Wearied and broken 
hearted, the poor penitent feels her load 
too great to bear, and runs from the scene, 
to find if possible the mother of our 
Lord, and to repose her aching head upon 
her breast. She meets some of the disci- 
ples and they are paralyzed with fear. 
Some of the daughters of Jerusalem are 
weeping in the streets, but they can give 
her no consolation. At the house of St. 
John she finds the holy Virgin calmly 
awaiting the end, and weeping at her feet 
she tells her tale of woe. The mother of 
God had few words to say, but her face 
speaks her heroic patience. God's will 
was lier law, and so in lier deepest grief 
she teaches the trembling penitent a lesson 
of submission. The Magdalene takes a 
new view of God's providence, and the 
peaceful spirit of the Virgin steals over 



LIFE OF ST. MAEY MAGDALENE. 135 

her heart. She feels stronger to suffer, 
and more ready to let God do what He 
wills with her affections. If Jesus must 
die to redeem her, she will love Him all 
the more ; if the stream of blood must 
flow to wash her guilt away, she will run 
to the fountain and hide herself at its 
source. She had been at the house of St. 
John but a few moments, when the disci- 
ple came in haste and despair to announce 
to the holy Mother that Jesus had been 
condemned to crucifixion, and that the 
soldiers had already started with Him on 
their way to Calvary. He told her how 
the ruffians had put the cross on His 
bleeding shoulders, and how they were 
dragging Him with violence while every 
step was marked with His blood. The 
blessed Virgin arose to follow Him, for 
the hour was come, and the cup of her 
sorrows was full. The Magdalene clung 
to her mantle and tried to hide her grief 
beneath its folds, or at least to keep up 
courage ; for what was her grief to that of 



136 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

her wlio was now to lose her only child ? 
They passed rapidly along the streets, and 
at a distance heard the shouts of the mob 
and the sound of the trumpet. They 
tried to cross the path of the procession 
and get a view of the sufferer. In this 
they could not have succeeded, had not 
our Lord so many times fainted under 
His burden. But at last they came in 
full sight of the victim, and Jesus looked 
upon Mary, and she 'looked upon Him. 
In this awful moment the penitent would 
gladly have supported the afflicted Virgin, 
but she could not have endured the trial 
but for the presence of the mother of 
mercy, and that she was hidden in her 
shadow. There stood innocence with its 
warm love, and penitence with its gushing 
affection, and yet both were needing the 
shelter of the queen of heaven, who in 
all her direst woe never lost for a moment 
her royal dignity. They could grieve, 
but they could not enter into the heart of 
the Virgin who gave up her son to death, 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 137 

and that son her God. The crowd came 
on and rudely pushed away the Mother 
and her attendants, and they were forced 
to follow at a distance, hearing and seeing 
all, but unable to comfort or relieve. It 
is needless to dwell upon the steps of the 
passion of which no tongue can worthily 
speak. We are now only occupied with 
the Magdalene's experience. She saw our 
Lord fall several times under the cross, 
heard them beat Him with sticks to make 
Him get up when He fell, and after so 
many delays, arrived in the rear of the 
mob at Calvary. When they had dragged 
Him up the brow of the hill, which was 
covered with skulls and noisome carcases, 
they threw Him down upon the ground, 
and nailed Him to the instrument of death. 
She saw them raise the cross with His 
bleeding form upon it, and roughly let it 
down into the hole of the rock, and then 
she looked upon Jesus crucified. For 
some time the rabble kept up their deri- 
sion, and there was no chance to approach 
12* 



138 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

the sufferer. Yet in a little while the 
persecutors began to be tired of their 
work, for many of them had spent the 
whole night in tormenting their victim ; 
and when suddenly darkness hung like a 
funeral pall over the scene, and the sun 
seemed to be put out, they crept away 
with fear, and left the small guard of 
Roman soldiers to watch till the end. 
Then as the holy mother drew near her 
dying Son, the Magdalene followed and 
took her accustomed place at her master's 
feet. Who can describe the emotions of 
her heart as for three long hours, amid 
darkness that could be felt, she waited 
in silence that echoed on all sides her 
sobs ? The feet which her tears had 
bathed were now beyond her reach. She 
could look at them, as the long spike went 
through them, and the blood gushed out 
in the tremors of the death-agony, but 
her lips could not kiss them, nor her hands 
assuage the cruel wound. Well had He 
said that her last anointing was for His 



LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 139 

burial. But at the foot of the cross she 
found her place, where the precious stream 
ran down, and she could find support by 
clasping the cruel wood. There she knelt 
and wept. Her thoughts were upon her 
great sin, and the price of her redemp- 
tion. She remembered what she had 
been, and what He had made her. When 
first she threw herself at His feet in the 
house of Simon, and found peace, she had 
no idea that her pardon was to cost all 
this. Now she sees her sin in a more 
awful light, and grief would have been 
despair but for the grace of Calvary 
where she knelt. She takes a new view 
of God's love to man, and of man's in- 
gratitude, and her love becomes deeper, 
as her hatred of sin increases. The need 
of expiation and the principle of vicari- 
ous suffering explain the sinner's recovery, 
and she learns the penitent's place in the 
scheme of redemption, and her share in 
the passion. The moments of the long 
sorrow seem hours, but it is the great 



140 LIFE OF ST. MAEY MAGDALENE. 

lesson of her spiritual life. She kneels 
there till all is over, till the dying words 
have been spoken, and the soul of Jesus 
has departed. Up to the last there was 
hope, for legions of angels were there 5 and 
the Son of God could have set death at 
defiance ; but now it is finished^ and 
naught is heard but the rumbling of the 
earthquake which has divided the rock© 
and opened the graves of the dead. The 
good shepherd has given His life for the 
sheep. 

Here is then the great lesson for the 
sinner, and the school for the disciple. 
He who weeps over past sin and longs 
for holiness shall find here the remedy for 
every disease. He must learn the mean- 
ing of the cross, and what it signifies to 
himself. There is a general admission of 
the fact that Christ died for the world, 
and that the justice of God could not 
save the transgressor without an expiation 
of his guilt. The penitent must go be- 
yond this, and understand how that mys- 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 141 

terious death is for himself, and how its 
infinite worth is to be applied to his great 
wants. And it is here that mercy worthy 
of God, and incomprehensible as He is 
himself, meets the misery of the trans- 
gressor. A fountain springs up in which 
the most polluted may wash, where the 
vilest can be made whiter than snow. In 
a twofold way the sinner has a share in 
the passion. His sins were the cause of 
that fearful suffering, and every member 
of the Son of God must bear its agony to 
atone for the crimes which we have com- 
mitted by hand, and foot, and tongue. 
And when we come really to love Him 
who died for us, it is no small grief to 
feel that we were the instruments of His 
woe ; and this grief increases day by day 
as our affections are fastened more and 
more upon the mangled victim of the 
cross. A crucified God draws all hearts 
unto himself, and the penitent who seeks 
for thorough cleansing from every trace 
of past transgression, finds his resting 



142 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

place on Calvary. There he finds shelter 
from every temptation, a peaceful home 
where the shadows of sense depart, and 
he learns to look only on w^hat is true and 
unchangeable. And as he kneels where the 
Magdalene knelt during th^ awful hour, 
some drops of the precious blood will fall 
upon him, with grace to overcome every 
weakness, with the gift of strength for the 
practice of virtue. And so he will have 
his part in the cross and become a partak- 
er of the sufferings of Christ, and even 
fill up what is wanting, and the marks of 
the Lord Jesus will be in his flesh. He 
will see how the consequences of sin fol- 
low him for his own purification, and how 
no one can really draw nigh to God with- 
out treading in the royal way where the 
Master traced the Christian life. Firmly, 
as stood innocence and penitence amid the 
heart-rending outrages of the crucifixion, 
he will persevere. Silently he will go on, 
for where there is great work to be done, 
there is no place for words or professions. 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALEXE. HI 

This is no picture of fancy, no hard road 
to heaven which an ascetic temper has de- 
vised. "If any man will follow Christ, 
he must deny himself and take up his 
cross." u The world must be crucified to 
him, and he to the world." This is the 
language of inspiration, and it means no- 
thing less than that conformity to our 
Lord which was the end of His Gospel. 
He that hath sinned must suffer, and by 
pain cast out the traces of disease, and re- 
gain former health. We cannot escape 
the trials of life, nor are they appointed 
by a careless providence, or distributed 
by chance. They are meant to reach the 
seat of our malady, and to him who is 
united to Christ, they are as the precious 
drops of the atoning blood falling from 
the Master to the disciple. They cast 
out what is vile, they purify what is good, 
and cement the union between the suffer- 
ing Head and His true members. 



144 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 



OHAPTEE XL 

THE PENITENT^ BURIAL. 

" If we have been planted together in the likeness 
of His death, we shall be of His resurrection in like 
manner." — Romans, vi., 5. 

We left tlie Magdalene at the foot of 
the cross, overcome by tlie weight of sor- 
row, and yet resigned to the divine will. 
She had seen the death of her Redeemer, 
had heard His last sighs, had trembled at 
His last convulsion, had seen the paleness 
of dissolution mingle itself with the red 
dye of blood. Deeper grows the dark- 
ness, and heavier is the muttering of the 
earthquake. The holy mother stirs not 
from her post ; St. John awaits her com- 
uancl, and the penitent keeps her place, 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 145 

hearing all and seeing all, yet, as it were, 
translated to another sphere, and forget- 
ful of every earthly thing. Jesus was 
dead. His soul had been violently separ- 
ated from the body, and it was too late 
to call Him back. Then every word He 
had ever spoken to her echoed in her 
ears ; every kind look He had given her 
lived again in memory, and she lifted up 
her eyes to that ghastly face, the sight of 
which had been her greatest happiness. 
An expression of pity and sweetness 
dwelt about the pallid lips ; but the eyes 
had lost the power of vision, the tongue 
the faculty of speech. Drop after drop of 
blood oozed out of the hands and feet, or 
trickled down from the points of the 
thorns. The past was overwhelming to 
her, but the present brought so deep a 
woe that all her life seemed covered with 
its gloom. For this she seemed to have 
been forgiven, that she might come here 
and weep ; understanding well the price 
of pardon, and paying her tribute of pen- 

13 



146 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

itent love. The shadows of night deep- 
ened around Calvary, and still without 
one word she kept watch, hiding herself 
at the foot of the cross, and under the 
shelter of Mary's presence. Awakened 
from her reverie of grief by the sound of 
approaching footsteps, she sees a band of 
soldiers coining up the hill. What new 
violence do they meditate ? The two 
malefactors, whom they crucified on 
either side of our Lord to cover His dying 
hours with ignominy, are groaning in 
their agony. It is to them the ruffians 
have come, and she hears the heavy blows 
by which they break their legs. Will 
they thus insult the dead body of Jesus ? 
No, His bones cannot be broken; but the 
centurion, advancing with his spear, pierces 
the sacred heart, unconscious of the mean- 
ing of his act, and of the part he fulfils 
in the mystery of redemption. The Mag- 
dalene looks up and shrinks back, as if the 
spear had transfixed her bosom, but is 
startled yet more, when the fountain of 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 147 

water and blood springs forth, from that 
open side. She is revived as the drops 
of the sacred stream fall upon her, and 
feels as if the flesh of a child had come 
back to her, and a new nature were given 
her. St. John awakes from his dream of 
woe, and the zeal of an apostle sparkles 
in his tearful eyes. Exultation seems to 
crown the agonized face of the sorrowful 
mother, as if she were saying to the sin- 
ner, " here is all my child can do, here 
gushes the last drop of His blood, and it 
can w^ash away your every pollution, it can 
give you the cleanness of an angel." 
Even the Roman soldier, as the dew of 
this torrent touches his brow, opens his 
eyes, professes himself a believer in the 
Nazarene, and exclaims, " truly this w r as 
the Son of God." While these scenes 
were going on, the friends of Jesus had 
taken consultation concerning His burial. 
Joseph of Arimathea has a new tomb in a 
garden near to Calvary, and has obtained 
from Pilate the permission to place there 



148 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

the sacred body. The disciples come 
mournfully to the cross, and assist in 
taking down their master. The Magda- 
lene witnesses every step in these sorrows 
and tries even to sooth the anguish of the 
holy Virgin. She sees the \ lifeless head 
reposed on Mary's bosom, while a mother's 
love marks every wound, and kisses the 
print of every thorn. The sacred feet 
are again within her reach, and there she 
pours out her tears, and breaks her box 
of spikenard. They bring linen, clean and 
white, and Jesus is laid out for the tomb. 
He who once brought her brother from 
the grave, is now going to be a prisoner 
in the sepulchre. Then, when all is ready, 
sfie follows the procession, and Mary 
allows her to walk at her side and to be 
her fellow-mourner in the last sad rites. 
When they pause before the open tomb, 
Magdalene again anoints the Lord, and 
places sweet spices in the corporal which 
enfolds Him. Then she kneels until her 
master is laid to His cold rest, and the 



LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 149 

stone is rolled at the door. The mother 
of God goes to the house of St. John, 
and the disciples retire, exhausted, to 
their homes. But she with the holy wo- 
men watches the sepulchre, until they are 
driven away by the Roman soldiers, and 
then at a short distance sits down to pray. 
The morrow is the great day of the pas- 
chal solemnity, but the lamb of God is al- 
ready sacrificed, and in face of the reality 
shadows lose their significance. The be- 
loved of her heart lies in the grave, and 
she is fastened to that rocky bed, and 
earth has nothing to attract her. In the 
darkness of the night she looks to the 
true light ; all human consolation departs, 
and she seems buried with the Lord of 
life. A night, and a day and a night, 
while the great rock closes the sepulchre, 
she watches with as fervent carefulness, as 
if to her were intrusted the sacred re- 
mains of the Christ. The garden of Jo- 
seph is her dwelling place, and the guards, 
touched by her grief, frighten her not 

13* 



150 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

away. They allow her to kneel by the 
door, to bring flowers, and sweet spices, 
and they chide her not for her tears. She 
wi known as the innocent guardian of her 
Saviour's grave. Great things are before 
her, but the awfulness of the present pre- 
vents her from looking to the future. She 
is wholly absorbed in duty to her Master, 
and is every moment preparing some- 
thing to honor His repose. 

We have ventured to call this her 
burial, because of her sympathy with 
Jesus, and also because of the effect of 
His tomb upon her spiritual nature. She 
had learned to love Him above all things, 
and to live in Him, and hence in His 
grave her heart was buried. The world 
had nothing to offer her and no consola- 
tion to give, and when He had died, she 
seemed to have died to all human ties. A 
funeral pall was thrown over the world, 
not indeed to extinguish the cheerfulness 
of her nature, but to convince her of the 
vanity of every thing but God. And to 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 151 

complete her sanctification this lesson was 
necessary. It was needful for her to go 
as a mourner to the sepulchre, where was 
laid her Creator and her deliverer. The 
bitterness of every affliction was contain- 
ed in this. She had tasted the cup of 
pleasure till disgust was added to remorse. 
She had seen her brother die, but Jesus 
was more than brother to her. Now her 
purest love is wounded in its tenderest 
point, and yet grows strong. She seems 
to be dead, and if life be in her, it is 
Christ who animates her. Her thoughts 
are the whispers of her dead Master, her 
words the echoes of His lips, and her ac- 
tions the expressions of His will. To all 
others she is dead. Touch her, and you 
will cause no sensation ; she cannot be 
awakened by the sound of joy, or the 
sobs of grief. She has passed beyond the 
ordinary laws of fallen humanity, and the 
voice of the charmer has lost its power. 
If tears flow from her eves, it is because 
her Lord is neglected; if a smile cross her 



152 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

face, it is because of His triumphs. She 
will live, though in the tomb, and mature 
for a glorious resurrection. Graces will 
flourish, and virtues take root, but before 
the eye of God alone. Her soul becomes 
a garden inclosed, where blooming in the 
uncreated light, and fed by celestial dew, 
the f raits of faith, hope and love grow up 
according to the fullness of Christ. 

In such a path the Redeemer of sinners 
seeks to lead every one of us, and as wc 
have been forgiven much, it is not too 
hard to expect us to love much. There 
is a sense in which every penitent must 
be buried with Christ. There are indeed 
high degrees of sanctification for such as 
long for great holiness, but the ordinary 
way of salvation leads the transgressor to 
the cross and grave of his Saviour. He 
must learn to crucify his evil affections, 
to die to the world and to be buried 
where passion may sleep, and the noise of 
creatures be forgotten. Any thing less 
than this would be an imperfect obedi- 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 153 

ence, where the heart relinquishes what it 
cannot hold, rather than grasps what God 
wills. It is to be admitted that the tone 
of piety is low in our day, and that in 
practice we have let down the require- 
ments of the divine law to the limits of 
a very easy religion. An easy life, with 
no sacrifices and a happy death, are the 
common estimate of the Christian life. 
But it would be well for us to ask if such 
be the picture which our Lord and His 
saints have given us, if such be the teach- 
ing of the inspired word. And even 
reason will instruct us that infinite justice 
cannot be satisfied with such an imperfect 
service. To obtain the reward of eternal 
life we must do God's will, and this is no 
small task for even a sinless intelligence. 
But for a sinful being, who has trampled 
upon grace, and by actual transgression 
debased .the impulses of nature, it is a 
work .demanding every energy, and lead- 
ing to many and painful sacrifices. Every 
vicious inclination must be subdued. Vir- 



154 LIFE OF ST. MAEY MAGDALENE. 

tues must be acquired which are contrary 
to self-love, and the law of God must be- 
come a rule for every thought and word. 
Besides all this, we must undo what evil 
we have wrought, pay the penalty we 
owe to the offended justice of heaven, and 
love our benefactor in proportion to the 
mercy by which He has reclaimed us. 
They who seek for salvation at a less cost 
than this, will find themselves disappoint- 
ed. If great sins do not slumber unre- 
bukecl, or unnoticed, little infidelities will 
cheat them out of the happy death which 
they expect. It is far from our purpose to 
discourage the sinner, while we are seeking 
to lead him to hope ; but presumption is 
the most dangerous form of deceit. We 
wish to show him the sure way to life, the 
way the Master trod, and to lead him by 
Calvary ; and we know no other path of 
salvation. 

" Follow me," said our blessed Lord. 
a Look unto Jesus," say the examples of 
all the saints. Where then the Master 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 155 

has led, the disciple must press on. We 
speak not of chosen souls who seek to fol- 
low the Lamb wheresoever He goeth, who 
yearn for Magdalene's love in its highest 
degree. 

This royal road is open to all, and 
would to God, there were more to walk in 
it, clinging with gratitude, with adoration 
even, to the marks of Jesus's feet. But 
when we come to seek for pardon and 
cleansing from our sins, we approach the 
cross, and it preaches to us mortification. 
When we enter upon the way of self-de- 
nial, we draw nigh the sepulchre, and 
learn separation from the world. This is 
nothing more than the meaning of our 
baptismal renunciation, which is required 
by the service of God. In theory we ad- 
mit that the world must be renounced, 
but in practice we still cling to its treas- 
ures, and venture to hope for salvation 
while our hearts are really set upon earth- 
ly things. By the burial of the penitent 
w T ith Christ, we signify, in the very Ian- 



156 LIFE OF ST. MAB,Y MAGDALENE. 

guage of Scripture, his union with his 
Lord, in complete detachment from crea- 
tures, in the spirit of sacrifice, and in vic- 
tory over self. It is a blessed repose to 
which we invite the sinner, who can have 
no hope of rest elsewhere, v It is a sure 
passage to a happy resurrection, when the 
true life shall obtain an eternal victory 
over death. As then we would be one 
with our Lord, let us be not afraid to fol- 
low in His footsteps. Let us seek detach- 
ment from all creatures, lest there be 
some rival of God in our heart. Sinful 
affections are, of course, incompatible with 
the state of grace, and he who clings to 
them can in no sense be a penitent. But 
even innocent affections are apt to go too 
far, and to usurp some of the empire which 
belongs -to Christ. Not that human love 
must be excluded, but it must be in God 
and for God. It must not have power to 
draw our thoughts away from heaven, or 
to make the brilliancy of the present de- 
tract from our anticipations of the future. 



fgWM ~ r. MARY MAGDALEXE, 157 

He who would be pure in heart will daily 
feel more and more the truth of these re- 
mark?, for he will see how, when one by 
one the chains that bind him to earth are 
cut. hi- soul springs more freely towards 
God. Experience of the vanity of hu- 
man hopes will not make him sad, since 
real piety is never gloomy. But it will 
make him thoughtful, and guard him 
against being- deceived by the shadows 
that flit across his path. When we have 
learned to make God the supreme object 
of our love, we can also cut off undue at- 
tachment to things, choosing neither this 
nor that, but leaving all to the wise dis- 
tribution of providence. Whatever we 
receive, nothing can hinder our advance 
in the way of holiness, and steadily we 
approach our true end. Giving up the 
things of time, we gain those of eternity. 
So by steps we arrive at detachment from 
self, and learn to seek no longer our own 
profit. The idol which we all, so natural- 
ly, worship is first dethroned, and then 

14 



158 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

broken to pieces. All we have and all 
we are is offered up in the spirit in which 
the master made His oblation, u Father, 
not my will but thine be done." A few 
moments of reflection will convince any 
one that there can be no ^exaggeration 
in this. God cannot accept half of our 
hearts, nor can we be at home in heaven, 
until every thing in us is perfectly sub- 
dued unto the divine law. Neither is 
there any rest from the war of passion, 
the stimulus of ambition, and the cravings 
of self-love, till having passed by the 
cross we come to the peaceful grave of 
Christ, and are quiet in its shelter. There 
shall the penitent see himself, and earthly 
things, and God, in their true light. He 
can no longer be deceived, he can never 
again be disappointed. Beginning with 
grief for sin, he has gone on to battle 
with his foes. He has suffered for past 
transgressions, but the sharpness of the 
agony is over, and from the shadows of 
Calvary, he has come to a gentle rest. He 



LIFE OF ST. ^TAEY MAGDALENE. 159 

has found the shelter of a great rock in a 
weary land, where the sun burns him no 
more, where the storm cannot reach him. 
He is dead with Christ and buried with 
Him, and vet he lives because Christ lives 
in him. Nothing could tear him from 
the place where his Lord is laid. And 
hence, though he was once vile, he is pre- 
cious now, as gold tried in the fire. His 
iniquities have been washed away, and 
are remembered no more. 

As then the Magdalene watches and 
weeps at her Saviour s tomb, let her ex- 
ample allure the sinner. From the full- 
ness of contrition springs great tender- 
ness of love, and from love, lon°ino; de- 
sire for conformity with Christ. This de- 
sire is a test of our spiritual life, and a 
safe guide to sanctiiication. If we have 
no such aspirations for union with our 
Lord, we may well suspect the reality of 
our repentance, and fear lest our purposes 
of amendment were only the impulses of 
a passing hour. 



160 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE DAY OF RESURRe6tIOJS t . 

" In my bed by night I sought Him whom my 
soul loveth ; I sought Him and found Him not. I 
will rise and go about the city ; in the streets and 
in the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul 
loveth. The watchmen who keep the city found 
me: Have you seen Him whom my soul loveth? 
"When I had a little passed by them, I found Him ; I 
held Him ; and I will not let Him go till I bring 
Him into my mother's house, and into the chamber 
of her that bore me. 5 ' — Canticles, iii., 1-4. 

The vigils of the Magdalene draw to 
an end. It is now the third day since the 
death of Jesus. Prevented by the pas- 
chal solemnities of the second day from 
anointing His body, she arises before the 
dawn and prepares her sweet spices, that 
she may make her offering at the sepul- 
chre. While it is yet dark she leaves her 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 161 

house, and is joined by the other holy 
women who are also on their way to Cal- 
vary. But though shadows still obscure 
the earth, the sun has already risen, and 
his first beams have touched the eastern 
horizon. She has scarcely left her home 
when she is startled by the sound of an 
earthquake. She was struck with terror 
because it reminded her of the fearful 
scenes which occurred at the cross, yet 
love was stronger than any apprehension 
of danger, and she hastened towards the 
tomb. What was her surprise when, on 
arriving in sight of the sepulchre, she 
saw the stone rolled away from the door, 
and the tomb empty ? The guards were 
not to be seen, and no one seemed to be 
in their place. Astonished beyond mea- 
sure, she went to tell St, Peter and St. 
John. These apostles were already 
aroused by the earthquake, and wonder- 
ing at the news they now heard, ran with 
all haste to ascertain the truth. Magda- 
lene followed, and. saw them go into the 



162 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

sepulchre, and then retire amazed to their 
homes. But she could not so soon leave 
the place where her Lord's body had been 
laid ; she was determined to watch around 
the garden until she should find some 
trace of Him whom her soul loved. The 
watchmen could give her no tidings, the 
disciples knew nothing, and so she stood 
weeping by the open door where the 
flowers she had gathered were still ex- 
haling their perfume. Soon she gained 
courage to stoop down and look into the 
tomb. The spices were in her hand, and 
why should she not go in and lay them 
on the corporal where Jesus had reposed ? 
But a vision arrests her footsteps, and 
stays for a moment the torrent of her 
grief. She beholds two angels in white, 
sitting, one at the head, and one at the 
feet, where the sacred body had been 
placed. They say to her, Woman, why 
weepest thou ? She said to them, Because 
they have taken away my Lord, and I 
know not where they have laid Him. 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 168 

The bright vesture of the angels terrified 
her not, the silver sound of their voices 
surprised her not. She was too intent 
upon finding her Master, to think of any 
thing but Him. Turning back, she sees 
one standing behind her, whom she sup- 
poses to be the gardener. Woman, said 
he, why weepest thou? whom seekest 
thou ? Sir, she replied, if thou hast taken 
Him away, tell me where thou hast laid 
Him, and I will take Him away. If she 
had carefully looked at the face she had 
known so well, she would, no doubt, have 
recognized her Lord. But too anxious to 
see His body, she had not even gazed at 
the angels. No time was to be lost ; He 
might be hidden somewhere in the gar- 
den, and she must find Him. But He 
whom she so anxiously sought was very 
near her ; He was even talking with her. 
He turns and looks upon her with the 
tenderness which He had always shown 
her, and speaks her name, Mary. O how 
that sound startled her ! It awoke her as 



164: LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

from a sleep, it cast the scales from her 
eyes, it carried the burden of ten thou- 
sand overwhelming memories. In an 
instant she was at His feet, and all she 
could say amid her sobs was, Master. 
She had found Him whom her soul loved, 
found Him again in life, and she deter- 
mined to hold Him and never to let Him 
go. Jesus looked upon her, and that 
look taught her many revelations. She 
had known Him to be the resurrection 
and the life. Why had she doubted that 
He who had brought her brother Lazarus 
from the grave, would come forth victori- 
ously ? Yet not to dwell upon earth had 
He risen again. She saw the points of 
the nails in hand and foot, and on His 
brow the marks of the thorns. Yet He 
was changed, and a glory dwelt around 
Him, and there was an unearthly music 
in His tones, and an unwonted brilliancy 
in His glance. All this became the con- 
queror over death. So the Magdalene 
could not hold Him. " Touch me not," said 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 165 

He, " for I have not yet ascended to my 

Father ; but go to my brethren, and say 
to them, I ascend to my Father, and your 
Father, to my God, and your God." He 
was going soon to heaven to prepare a 
mansion for His elect. There the peni- 
tent should find Him, and be folded in 
His everlasting embrace. Until that day 
she must touch Him by faith, and receive 
Him as His other children in the sacra- 
ment of the altar. Xow she must arise 
in the power of His resurrection, and be 
equal to the trial of her love. Apostolic 
zeal must guide her feet, the Mother of 
God must be her queen, until her race is 
accomplished, and her soul ascends to the 
mountain where she need ask no more 
tidings of the watchmen,, where the 
angels in their bright ministries shall only 
bring her to the feet where she found 
pardon. So Magdalene awakes to a new 
life. She dries her tears and prepares for 
the mission her Lord assigns her. She 
goes to the disciples and gives her testi- 



166 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

mony, and bids them prepare to meet Him 
in Galilee. "We do not know what inter- 
course she had with her risen Master, but 
there can be no doubt that whenever she 
was allowed to be present, she waited 
upon His words. With Lazarus and 
Martha she kept herself in the Apostles' 
fellowship, and by active charity minis- 
tered to the wants of the infant church. 
The power of Christ's resurrection upheld 
her, when on the Mount of Olives she 
caught the last look at His ascending 
form, and the grace of Pentecost completed 
the work of self-oblation. But never 
from eye or heart or tongue was Jesus 
absent. For Him alone she lived, and the 
thought of meeting Him again was the 
one hope which made her pilgrimage 
sweet. 

The gifts of the resurrection are the 
privilege of penitents, and hence from the 
Magdalene's history, we learn another les- 
son. As the Lord rose again victorious 
over death, so must we arise to new and 



LIFE OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE. 167 

vigorous life, to zeal in His service and 
self-denying activity for the salvation of 
souls. We are too apt to forget the work 
which He has put in our hands, and when 
we find a little consolation, to rest from 
our labors. Idleness, in the spiritual life, 
is perhaps the greatest of dangers, because 
the sure prelude to temptation, if not the 
harbinger of death. The sinner can never 
fold his hands to take any respite, or think 
of any truce with his enemies. He has 
ever the great sins of his life to contend 
against, and the evil effects of the past to 
undo. In this life he cannot be so secure 
as to safely neglect watching. And if he 
be really sincere, he has much to do in the 
way of virtue, for it is a poor love which 
seeks for no sign of gratitude towards a 
benefactor. He will follow Jesus with 
anxious eyes, no matter whether it be to 
Tabor, to Calvary, or to the Mount of 
Olives. And such is the power of grace, 
that no one need be discouraged. What- 
ever may have been his sin, let him follow 



168 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

in the narrow way, taking each step pa- 
tiently, and he shall find himself insensi- 
bly changed. The old man shall give 
place to the new man, and vile as he was, 
he shall one day bear the likeness of his 
Lord. Purity springs up with all its 
jealousy, and humility guards the home 
which Jesus has chosen for His abode. 
Such transformations are the miracles of 
the resurrection, the consolation of Him 
who died to redeem us. Great sinners be- 
come great saints, and God is glorified by 
the wonders of His own hand. But zeal 
is above all necessary for the work of our 
salvation, a persevering energy to carry 
on and complete what grace has begun in 
us. We must resolve never to rest till 
every thing in us accords with the Divine 
will, till there be no root of bitterness in 
our hearts. Then from daily faithfulness 
with ourselves, we shall come to active 
charity for others, to a strong desire for 
the extension of Christ's kingdom. We 
may say in truth that it is He whom our 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 169 

soul loveth, for He will have all our affec- 
tions. There are many sinners, there are 
few penitents. Many begin well, but get 
weary before their task is half accom- 
plished. And many to whom God gives 
the great mercy of conversion, go back to 
trample under their feet the precious 
blood, and renew their crimes. If we 
would persevere, let us be determined to 
give all to our deliverer, and then lose not 
a moment in His service. He will give us 
enough to do, will gently support us when 
there is danger, and soothe us when we 
are wearied. Gentlest, dearest, and kind- 
est of masters, He will only care for our 
progress in holiness. Then let us set our 
mark high, and press onward till we at- 
tain it. Let us not be ashamed to confess 
that we desire to be saints, not that the 
world may witness our devotion, but that 
Jesus may look into our hearts and see 
them to be His own. He purchased them 
on the cross, He washed them in His 
blood ; why should He not have them all ? 



170 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

The atmosphere is cold around us, and 
the times are chilling to faith. Yet who 
shall answer for us, if after the espe- 
cial favors we have received, we have no 
return to make, no love which runs after 
the feet of the good shepherd, no attrac- 
tion to the holiness of Jesus and Mary. 
Let others be cold to Him who espouses 
our souls in blood. We must not be so. 
"We must arise and go after Him. We 
shall find Him by the open grave, where 
for us the bars of death are broken in 
pieces, where He waits to give us life and 
immortality. There is the entrance to the 
living way of His flesh, where sinners put 
on white robes, and wear His garments, 
and walk in His footsteps. O ! for the 
fervor of early piety, the ardent love of 
true repentance. Here the past is all for- 
gotten, and these are they who have 
washed their raiment and made it white 
in the blood of the Lamb. 



LIFE OF ST. MAEY MAGDALENE. 171 



CHAPTBE XIII. 

THE HOUR OF DEATH. 

" The Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, 
shall rule them, and shall lead them to the fountains 
of the water of life, and God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes." — Apocalypse, vii., 17. 

Little is certainly known of the life of 
the Magdalene after the ascension of our 
Lord. There can be no doubt that she 
was a partaker in the first triumphs and 
sorrows of the apostles. When the Jews 
began their persecution, she was obliged 
also to suffer for her Master. Specially 
outraged against her, because of the re- 
surrection of Lazarus, as well as on ac- 
count of her constant affection to Jesus, 
of whom she was always speaking, they 
resolved to put to death her whole family. 
Accordingly they seized her with Lazarus 



172 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

and Martha, and a number of the disciples, 
and placing her upon a vessel without 
sail or rudder, cast her out upon the sea. 
But angels were the pilots of that bark, 
and after being some time tossed by the 
waves, they were all safely lar^ded at Mar- 
seilles. There they began the preaching 
of the Gospel, and the natives, struck by 
the miracle of their preservation, were 
converted in large numbers to the faith. 
Lazarus became the bishop of the city, 
and so the family of Bethany, translated 
to a strange land, was made the founda- 
tion of a new and flourishing Church. 
Here the neighboring nations heard the 
word of life, and were changed into be- 
lievers in Christ. But the Magdalene, ac- 
customed to prayer and the feet of the 
Lord, retired soon from all converse with 
men, and hid herself in a cave of a high 
mountain, that alone with God, she might 
enjoy the contemplation of heavenly 
things, and preserve the good part which 
she had chosen. There, separated from 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 173 

the world, she renewed her intercourse 
with Jesus, impressed upon her nienioiy 
all she had seen Him do or suffer, and 
meditated upon the words He had spoken. 
Tradition tells us that thus she passed 
thirty years, daily caught up in spirit by 
angels to hear the praises of the celestial 
court. So the hour of death was wel- 
come to her. She had longed for it, and 
had patiently waited till the bridegroom 
should say, come. She had borne her 
exile well, had witnessed her unchanging* 
affection to Jesus; and the messenger that 
called her home, but opened the door that 
led her to the nuptials of the king. Her 
sins were all washed away by penance ; 
Calvary had made her clean and white, 
and now with the crown of sanctity on 
her brow she goes to the Lamb, who is 
in the midst of the throne. There, where 
the angels' incense is sweeter than the 
perfume of her spikenard, she found a 
home. He who first pitied her when 
she was in the misery of guilt, now takes 



174: LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

to His arins the work of His own hands, 
leads lier to the fountains of the water of 
life, and wipes all tears from her eyes. 
She can weep no more ; she may kneel 
for ever at the feet which saved her, but 
the day of mourning is past. N 

It remains to us, therefore, to make a 
last improvement of the few facts of her 
life which we have brought together, and 
by her example to prepare for the last 
conflict, the hour of death. The penitent 
must be well provided for this struggle 
where he ends his race, and strikes his final 
and victorious blow. His whole life, in- 
deed, must be ordered for such a victory, 
since death comes so suddenly, and upon 
it the most momentous issues depend. 

If the sinner has endeavored to follow 
the pattern which we have so briefly 
given, he need not fear as he approaches 
the term. He has truly repented of all 
his sins, he has faithfully confessed them, 
has forsaken them. Through such an ex- 
perience as God has seen to be needful for 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 175 

him lie "has been led along, acd if lie lias 
been sincere, every day has renewed his 
grief for past transgression. JSTow as the 
dark valley lies beneath him, let him 
gather up his faith and hope and love, 
and go cheerfully on where Jesus and 
Mary have been before him. He will 
take a review of his life, and many causes 
of self-accusation will present themselves. 
He will, no doubt, see how here he has 
lost an opportunity of acquiring virtue, 
how there he has given way to weakness. 
Yet these things he has lamented, and 
now more clearly reproves. He has not 
accomplished for God what he might have 
done, but yet all his failures and negli- 
gences have been brought to the tribunal 
of pardon, and hence his conscience is 
clear. If he has injured any one in per- 
son, good name, or property, he has made 
all the restitution in his power. He has 
not postponed to this hour the work of a 
lifetime, and hence is not overwhelmed. 
He has often been to Calvary and the 



176 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

sepulchre, and Jesus lias taken his burden 
from his shoulders and given him a light 
heart. He has followed in the ways 
where the good Shepherd leads His flock, 
and has chiefly sought to please the gra- 
cious Master whose disinterested love has 
daily won more and more of his affection. 
He is now going to die, to give up his 
soul, but not into the hands of a stranger. 
He is going to one whom he knows, who 
has known him long, whose love has been 
more to him than any earthly tie. He 
must suffer pain, but^ with each agony he 
will remember the cross of his Saviour, 
and offer up his bodily suffering, in union 
with that of Jesus, that it may avail to 
atone for his debt to divine justice, and 
glorify God. Flesh trembles as dissolution 
draws nigh, and one by one the senses are 
departing. Yet peaceful will be the soul 
whose experience in self-renunciation has 
taught her how to give up all things at 
the will of her Maker. First, she gave 
up sin and its occasions, then she turned 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 177 

from earth, and offered up herself. The 
kind Master took her at her word, and 
she has never had her own will since 
the day of her full conversion. So one 
effort more, and earth returns to earth, 
ashes mingle with ashes, and the spirit 
is in God's hands. The ransomed sinner 
has gone home. He will tremblingly, in- 
deed, meet his Judge, for who can stand 
before the infinite holiness and fear not. 
But he will give his account with confi- 
dence, since the face of his Redeemer will 
cheer his confession, and if for a season 
he descend into the purifying fire, he will 
go there adoring God's justice, and sure 
that every hour will bring him nearer to 
an unending union with his Lord. Long 
has he walked by faith, and lived in the 
spiritual world, and he will find himself 
in that land where he shall be a fellow- 
citizen with the saints. The mother of 
God and her holy spouse shall be near 
him, while his patron saints become the 
familiar friends of his eternity. Purified 



178 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

at last from every spot, free from every 
debt, he comes to the feet of the Lamb 
who is in the midst of the throne. There 
is no more hunger, no more thirst, no 
more night, and the hands of Jesus shall 
wipe away every tear. The battle is 
fought and won. The good race is ac- 
complished. 

A good death ought to be the great 
aim of our whole lives. In these few pages 
we have endeavored to show how the sinner 
may gain this happy end. The path here 
marked out is open to all who have fallen 
by mortal sin, especially those who have 
been betrayed into the crimes of the 
Magdalene. The directions here given 
are sufficient to lead any penitent to a 
true conversion, and to animate him to 
perseverance. The same Jesus who met 
with so much mercy the outcast, is now 
waiting for the salvation of any, who sick 
of sin desire to return to holiness. There 
are two classes who may possibly read this 
little book. It may through the Divine 



LIFE OF ST, HART MAGDALENE. 179 

pity fall into the hands of some who are 
entangled in iniquity, and tempted to 
despair of recovery. Every thing around 
them leads to vice, and there is no one to 
say a cheering word. Earth has lost its 
pleasure, and there seems no hope of 
heaven for them. To such the example 
of the Gospel is directly addressed. You 
have sinned very much, and yet the arms 
of your crucified God are stretched out to 
embrace you. Fear not, but love much, 
and all shall be well. Go to Him and nail 
yourself to His feet, and the water and 
the blood may make you a saint. In the 
depths of misery He likes to show His 
power, and if you are sincere there is no 
end to the favors He will shower upon 
you. Yon shall gain the end of your 
being, and by the happy gate of death 
pass to the side of the Magdalene, where 
eternity only shall teach you how to love 
your benefactor. But there is another 
class of persons who are perhaps in more 
danger, because of a false security. They 



180 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

have never had a true sense of the evil of 
sin, and flatter themselves therefore that 
the divine justice has little against them. 
Their offences against God have been un- 
known to the world, and if they have 
felt any sense of shame, it is only in 
the secret of their own hearts. They 
have confessed faithfully, but with no 
bitterness of grief, and even with some 
self-congratulation. They are not like 
others, they are not common sinners. 
Now since they do not really feel their 
unworthiness in the sight of God, they 
have no anxiety about the future. They 
look upon the language of penitence as 
exaggerated, as a style fit for the cloister, 
but too high for the world. They cannot 
be expected to have this self-renunciation, 
this humility, this separation from earthly 
things. And hence when the hour of 
death conies, and they find themselves in 
the presence of their judge, they are un- 
prepared. Some, at that awful moment, 
shall find when too late that they have 



LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 181 

never truly repented. It is the saying of 
our Lord. " Many shall seek to enter in 
at the strait gate and shall not be able/ 7 
u for I will say unto them I never knew 
you." Others, though free from mortal 
sin, shall pass the ordeal of judgment, 
only to learn for the first time their num- 
berless imperfections, and to enter upon 
that painful purification where the fur- 
nace, heated seven times hot, shall be 
needed to burn away the dross, the wood, 
hay and stubble which a careless life has 
accumulated. Would it not be better to 
use the day of grace, and to prepare for 
the dying hour, by now searching the 
ground of our hearts, and endeavoring 
to see ourselves as God sees us. It will 
do us no harm to think li^htiv of our 
good works, or to scrutinize jealously the 
springs of our actions. We are not apt 
to disparage our own qualities. And if 
we find months and years go by without 
any improvement, if virtues do not in- 
crease, nor faults diminish, if the temper is 



182 LIFE OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. 

as harsh as ever, and the tongue unbridled, 
while the senses are unrestrained, we may 
well suspect that there is some root of evil 
in us. Either we are insincere, or we have 
not yet acquired the self-abasement which 
the sinner needs when he comes to the feet 
of Jesus. Mistakes may be repaired in 
time, but when the axe falls on the root 
of the tree, it will be too late to apply 
remedies. Then what consolation can the 
man of sorrows have from such lukewarm 
and unloving followers ? It would be 
well for us often to contemplate the terrors 
of our last hour, and in view of eternity 
to judge of our spiritual state. " Blessed 
is that servant, whom his Lord when He 
cometh shall find watching." And what 
is it to watch, but all the day long to 
look for Christ ? It is to seek Him in 
every thing, to see Him in every cross, in 
every joy, in every providence. It is to 
desire Him above all things, to be a pil- 
grim longing for home, an exile counting 
the hours of captivity. It embitters not 



LIFE OF ST. MABY MAGDALENE. 183 

the present, but sanctifies the changing 
scenes of life, and gilds the future with 
bright rays of glory. May He who 
guided the steps of the Magdalene but 
lead us to such a happy end. 



THE END. 



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